ASHEaDE
by Xelac
Summary: "Welcome to the Aperture Science Human Enhancement and DNA Exchange testing unit".  This is an alternate Portal 2. This time, it's Chell AND her fun-loving pack of genetically altered mutants who have escape on their mind.
1. Here We Go Again

**A/N: Disclaimer – This isn't exactly a Portal and Maximum Ride crossover. Most of the idea and components come from Maximum Ride, but you don't have to completely read or understand the series. You do, however, have to understand Portal 2. It just had too much Maximum Ride stuff in it to make it a plain Portal story.**

"There's just one small thing we need to take care of first," GLaDOS's voice echoed as the mechanical arm let go and I fell into Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator. Man, she was really pissed off. Then again, I did kill her, but then again _again, _she did try to kill me. It's a give and take.

I fell for at least a minute before the shaft let out into a large room. Luckily, I fell onto the floor rather than the fires.

"Here we are. The Incinerator Room," GLaDOS said as I slowly stood up, "Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here."

I began to slowly pick my way across the room as the AI proceeded to tell me the dual portal device was down here, and that once it's found testing would begin. Testing… Not exactly looking forward to that.

Finally, I was clear of the fire and spotted the portal gun underneath some loose panels.

"There it is," GLaDOS commented as I approached it, "Hold on…" The panels, half broken and barely functioning, slowly managed to lift themselves off of it. "Good. You have a dual portal device," GLaDOS said in her cheerful yet sadistic voice, "There should be a way back to the testing area up ahead."

As I proceeded through the dilapidated hallways of the facility, GLaDOS continued to ramble on about how she has a black box quick save feature, how I will test for the rest of my life, yadda, yadda, yadda. I mostly tuned her out unless what she said could actually help me, which wasn't often.

Finally, I reached the elevator that led to testing.

"Sorry about the mess," GLaDOS said as I stepped out of the elevator, "I've really let this place go since you killed me. By the way, thanks for that."

"Sarcasm self test complete," the announcer, err, announced.

"Oh good, that's back online. I'll start getting everything else working while you preform this first simple test," she said as I entered the chamber.

Get on the platform; use portals to direct a laser at a thingy on the floor. Child's play.

"Not bad. I forgot how good you are at this. You should pace yourself though, we have a LOT of tests to do," the AI announced. I silently groaned as I stepped into the elevator.

Here we go again.

Two more relatively simple tests involving lasers passed. As I headed toward the elevator, GLaDOS spoke up again.

"I was looking through some old files and found something interesting," she announced. I sighed and leaned up against the closed elevator shaft, curious at what the AI would find important enough to delay testing. "Now, where did I put that file," she said, obviously stalling to build the suspense, "Ah, here it is. You see, the reason you were able to escape before was because you were simply placed in the wrong testing course." What? "Before I gained control of this facility, the scientists had surgically enhanced the physical abilities of certain test subjects, one of them apparently being you. However, there was a mix up, and you were placed in a course designed for regular humans. So, if you thought you were special, you're wrong," she concluded as the shaft finally opened.

I paused for a moment, taking this in. I had been… surgically enhanced? What did they do to me? Do I even want to know? Feeling sick, I proceeded to the next chamber.

Several test chambers went by. Finally, I completed the first test that involved turrets. As I headed to the next chamber, GLaDOS commented that yesterday was my birthday. Not that it mattered. What mattered was what she said _after _test.

"I've been working on a belated birthday present for you," she announced happily, "Weeeeell, more of a belated birthday medical procedure. Well, technically, it's a medical EXPERIMENT. But what's important is it's a present."

My blood began to run cold as I approached the elevator, which didn't appear.

"Did you know that one of Aperture's scientists studied DNA rather than what most of the others studied?" GLaDOS asked casually, "He thought that rather than enhancing subjects surgically, which could have negative side effects, what about instead changing their DNA?" The computer paused, waiting to see my reaction. I tried to not react, but my pale face was probably the only reaction she needed. "He was transported to a different science company, though. But, I do have all of his research. Tell you what. Instead of putting off the procedure until after more test chambers, as I was planning, why don't we do it now?"

I immediately began to search the room for an escape. However, GLaDOS had already locked the door and reinforced the walls. There was no way out. A gas began to seep into the room. However, it didn't have the greenish tint that neurotoxin had, and it didn't make my throat sting. It did, however, make me feel… a bit… yawn… drowsy…


	2. Mutations

The next thing I remembered was waking up in the same room I woke up in before I met that odd blue core. Immediately, I panicked and checked myself over, looking for any surgical scars. Luckily, the only scars were the ones on my arms and legs that had been long healed since the very first time I woke up in this mad house of a facility, which must have been the 'surgical enhancements' that GLaDOS mentioned.

However, there was this 'tingling' feeling, and there seemed to be three metal straps around my torso.

"Well, I'm glad you're awake," I jumped at the sound of GLaDOS's voice, "I'm happy to say that you reacted well to the procedure. So far, at least."

I looked around and noticed a camera on the wall opposite to the bed. Typical.

The tingling feeling increased on my back, almost to the point of being painful. Instinctively, I reached back there to try to check it out. Underneath the straps, there seemed to be something… growing there.

"The operation was simple, really," GLaDOS explained, "All I had to do was genetically alter a few cells, and make them operate almost like cancer cells; killing the regular cells and reproducing until every last cell in your body is filled with the new DNA."

The blood drained from my face, and yet I still tried to give her a fierce glare. I probably failed…

"Anyway," the AI went on, "You look fine now, so why don't we get back to testing?"

There was a pair of long-fall boots and a portal gun by the door. Reluctantly, I pulled on the boots and picked up the gun, trying to ignore the tingling feeling. The room exited into a hallway that led straight to an elevator, which more than likely led to the test chambers.

It turned out that the weird feeling didn't hinder me too much, once I got used to it. It kept increasing though, and it got kind of hard to concentrate. By the end of the test, however, it became unbearable.

You know the feeling you get when your leg or something falls asleep, right? Well, take your worst case of that in memory and times it by about a thousand. Now, imagine that sensation all over your body, especially your back. It's not pleasant, is it?

It raged on for about a minute before it finally eased off and I could stand back up.

"Hmm… Interesting reaction. I'll study that more later. For now, get up and continue testing," GLaDOS ordered.

_Thanks, GLaD, _I thought bitterly as I entered the elevator. As it descended, I reached back again to that thing on my back, feeling under my shirt this time. Wait… are those… _feathers?_ Carefully, I pulled one out, wincing at the pinprick of pain that confirmed that there was, indeed, something growing out of my back that had feathers growing out of it. The feather I had pulled out was a pure dark brown; so dark it was almost black.

"I think I should explain something," GLaDOS commented when she saw me exit the elevator with a feather, "You are now only 80% human. The rest is bird. African Crowned Eagle, _Stephanoaetus Coronatus,_ to be exact. Did you know, that skulls of infants have been found in the nests of African Crowned Eagles? I found that interesting."

It's kind of sad that my first thought was '_How the heck did you get African Crowned Eagle DNA?'_ even though that probably isn't the most concerning thing going on right now. You know, such as the fact that I have _wings growing out of my back._

"In a few hours, your wings will be fully matured, and we can begin aerial testing. Rest assured that the maturing process will not be painless," GLaDOS explained cheerfully. You know, with a hint of sadism on the side.

I continued testing. You know the drill. Luckily, that tingling feeling mostly stopped, except on my back, or rather, my wings. On them, it got worse. It began to hurt to the point that I would collapse in the middle of a test and be completely out of it for a while (who knew what GLaDOS did during that?). I could practically _feel_ them grow. At first, they didn't go past my waste. Later, the feathers extended from under my shirt.

Finally, GLaDOS announced that my wings were fully matured and told me to enter this glass box that was like a relaxation vault and moved me away from the test chambers. Ugh… I don't usually feel claustrophobic in these things… Anyway, at this point, the primary flight feathers reached my ankles, and the tingling feeling had completely stopped.

Yeah, that's right, the AI had shoved random bird facts down my throat in between testing. I had the different types of feathers memorized, whether I liked it or not. She also explained that I now had raptor vision, hollow bones, more efficient heart and lungs, faster healing abilities, and, due to the previous surgical enhancements, overall stronger than a full-grown human male on steroids.

So far, the metal straps had kept the wings uncomfortably tight against my back and sides. But now, they were loosening. Feeling spread through my wings; the circulation in them must have been cut off.

The vault stopped inside what looked like the entrance to yet another test chamber. The straps fell off completely, and my wings unfurled through long slits in the jumpsuit. It felt so weird to have these things on me. It wasn't too long ago when I was entirely human, instead of 80%.

The covert feathers were all the same dark brown, almost black color as the feather I pulled off (in fact, that feather was a covert). The flight feathers were white with a single dark brown band going through the middle of them, and dark brown tips. If you're confused by that description, look up images or videos of African Crowned Eagles on Google.

"You have survived complete mutation. Congratulations," GLaDOS said sarcastically. A small horn went off and confetti fell out of a dispenser. "You are now officially part of the Aperture Science Human Enhancement and DNA Exchange testing unit."

I mostly ignored her, still extending and retracting my wings to get the feel of them.

"For this next test, you are asked to go on without your Aperture Science Long-Fall Boots and Aperture Science Dual Portal Device," GLaDOS explained. I looked up in surprise. "Of course," she went on, her voice dropping an octave, "I'm not asking you… I'm ordering you."

A panel on the wall came out of place and made a small platform. Reluctantly, I set the boots and the portal gun on it. It retracted behind the wall, and another panel took its place. It felt weird not having them… almost as weird as having wings.

The door into the test chamber opened and I stepped inside onto a platform. The floor of the chamber was far enough below that the fall would surely kill me without the boots, and there was another raised platform high overhead that a laser beam went over. On the floor of the chamber was a discouragement redirection cube.

Well, learning to fly downward is probably easier than going up, and I'll need that cube anyway, so down it is. I extended my wings, took a deep breath, and jumped. The air caught them like a parachute, catching me by surprise and causing me to flap wildly, which made me go up a little. Forcing myself to relax, I instead tucked them in, swooping downward. As I neared the bottom, I extended them again to land. I hit the ground and fell head-over-heels due to the momentum. _Note to self: When landing after a swoop, extend wings and slow down earlier._

I stood, a little sore from the fall, and picked up the cube. _Is it just me, or is it waaay easier to pick these things up now?_ I wondered.

I looked up. Now for the hard part. I jumped and began to flap, slowly ascending. After a moment of struggling, I realized it was easier and faster to flap in long, powerful strokes rather than short, panicky ones like how I'd been doing.

I finally reached the platform and set the cube on it, aiming the laser at the… the thingy on the wall you have to point the laser at. How should I know what it's called, no one ever said what its name was! _The Aperture Science Thermal Discouragement Beam Wall Receptacle?_

The exit door opened and, feeling a little overly confident in my new abilities, I made a show of flying through it.

"Well done. You have managed to not crash," GLaDOS noted.

I ignored her passive-aggressive insult, still exhilarated from the brief flight. Flying, once you get used to it, is just… _amazing_. And to think that before I was a little nervous about flying through portals or on Aerial Faith Plates! Now, I would do that in a Superman pose!

"Now, it's time to _really_ test your abilities," GLaDOS stated in a dark tone. My exhilarated feeling? Gone.


	3. More Tests

_It… Never… Stops! _The tunnel kept rebuilding itself in front of me, showing no sign of stopping.

"Ten hours," GLaDOS chimed in behind me. Like I would really care how long I've been doing this. I hissed in annoyance as the tunnel suddenly banked to the right.

Oh, right, you're not up to speed. You see, this is what GLaDOS affectionately called an "endurance and maneuverability test". Basically, the panels were constantly building themselves into a tunnel just a bit wider than my wingspan. The tunnel would constantly change, going any direction at any angle. That was the "maneuverability" part. The endurance part? I had to fly through this tunnel at a constant speed (apparently 90 miles per hour) for _hours._ Speeding up was a waste of energy, since the tunnel just built itself faster, and slowing down meant getting caught in a grinder that was constantly at my heels. The AI even had something tied to my arm that apparently recorded my heart rate, blood pressure, and who-knows-what-else.

The tunnel banked upward, forcing me to go up with it. My wings were beginning to ache, but I stubbornly pressed on. And on. And on.

"Eleven hours," GLaDOS announced after what felt like another _year, _"Carful not to crash."

I noticed what she meant and turned sharply to left just before slamming into the wall. Great, now my eyes are starting to go out of focus. Okay, now my wings were seriously starting to hurt. To be honest, I was surprised that they had kept it up for three hours, but at that point I felt fine. I wasn't sure if it was the surgical enhancements or the bird DNA, but I now had _tons_ of stamina. Stamina that was now beginning to run out.

And run out fast.

_Must slow down… Must stop… No! Keep going! I can't stop now! Can't go on… Keep your chin up! _Dang it, arguing with myself was probably burning more energy than it's worth.

Whether I wanted to or not, I was losing altitude, and the grinder was catching up. I tried to speed up, but every wing stroke was becoming more and more of a chore.

Suddenly, I heard the grinder, well, grind to a halt. I looked back, and slammed into the wall of the tunnel, which had sealed itself and became a box. I fell to the ground and stayed there, my wings beginning to feel like they were on fire.

"This concludes the endurance and maneuverability test," GLaDOS announced, like I didn't get that when _the freaking tunnel stopped._ Sorry, being tired makes me get agitated and write in italics.

The roof of the box was removed and three mechanical arms lowered themselves inside, lifting me out of it. I didn't care. I was taking a nap.

I woke up again in that love-el-y cryogenic chamber designed look like a hotel room. I was lying on my stomach with my wings falling lazily over the side of the bed. I slowly pulled myself up, my wings still sore.

"Welcome back," GLaDOS said sarcastically, "I hope that wasting over twelve hours on sleep has properly rejuvenated you."

_Nope,_ I thought groggily, turning to face the camera, _not even close._

"However, I did have time to work on a pair of robots I created specifically for cooperative testing. I even used them to find a large vault _filled _with test subjects," GLaDOS announced, snapping back into her usual enthusiastic stab-your-eyes-out-with-science way of speaking, "I've began taking a few of them and changing their DNA, like I did with you. Who knows, maybe you'll finally meet other people you have something in common with. You'd all be mutant freaks."

She waited for a response. It was only predictable that she would use the whole mutant-freak thing as an insult, so she didn't get much out of me. Only a few blinks and a bored stare.

She sighed. "After a break, we will continue testing."

I tucked my wings in, wondering how long this break would last.

"Break's over," GLaDOS said after about twenty seconds, "Back to testing." The door opened.

_Woo hoo,_ I thought, leaving the room.

I proceeded to the next test without a portal gun or long-fall boots again. Not that I need long-fall boots anymore. She put that thing back on my arm.

The test chamber was basically a straight shot to the end, which was just a wall. There wasn't an exit door. A few feet from the door, the floor dropped off several feet to some netting, underneath which was an abyss. Obviously, I would have to fly across, but there wasn't a door on the other side. What kind of test was this?

"Your next test is a speed test," GLaDOS explained, "You will fly to the other side, then back again, as quickly as necessary."

_It's as simple and as non-life threatening as that?_ I thought in disbelief. And what did she mean by as "quickly as necessary"?

Suddenly, panels on each side of the room moved aside, revealing a row of turrets behind a grate on both walls. _Ohhh…_

"Begin," the AI ordered sadistically.

I took a running start and leaped forward, unfolding my wings.

"Hello!" "Target acquired!" "I see you!"

Luckily, I didn't have to fly too fast to avoid getting shot. I landed on the other side smoothly, turned, and flew back, still without getting shot.

"One moment," the AI said calmly. Mechanical arms reached down behind the grate, dropping more turrets. Great.

I flew through it again, having to go much faster this time. Of course, after that she added _more _turrets, and after that round even more. This went on until I was forced to reach 150 mph, and after that I could only dodge by swooping and swerving. At that point I was finally allowed to stop and was transported back to that room via moving relaxation vault. I guess it wasn't really a relaxation vault anymore. I certainly wasn't relaxed in it.

"While you were testing, I took some other cryogenic chambers and arranged them into sort of a living area for the other mutants," GLaDOS explained on the way there.

She pretty much just shoved four cryogenic chambers into a row, added a sort of kitchen and a bathroom, and sealed it all together into one big box. On the opposite end of the one that the relaxation vault entered was a closed door that probably lead to something that lead to test chambers. Has anyone read the Portal fanfiction, 'Average Life at Aperture Science'? It's the same concept here, except for the high security.

I exited the vault, which moved out of the room as the wall sealed behind it.

"One of the other mutants is in here now. Test Subject #2, come meet Test Subject #1," GLaDOS said as a man wearing the same orange jumpsuit as me walked out of one of the cryogenic chambers (let's just call them 'bedrooms'. That's much easier.).

There was something strikingly dark about him. He had slick black hair that fell in front of his eyes, which were too dark for me to locate his pupils. Protruding from his hair were… ears? They weren't like a cat's or a dog's. He looked to be about the same age as me, but taller. What I couldn't help but stare at, though, were his wings.

Yes, I had wings to, but mine were a bird's. His were a bat's. They were dark brown and were longer than mine. Mine were attached to my shoulders, and his were too, but they were also attached by a flap of skin that went from his shoulder down to his waist.

And you should have figured out by now that his ears were a bat's as well.

"'Test Subject 2'…" he muttered under his breath. "My name is Zack." He held out his hand. I shook it, trying at least to appear friendly.

He looked at me expectantly, probably waiting for me to introduce myself. I put my hand on my throat and shook my head, trying to tell him that I couldn't talk. He nodded like he understood, though, so I took his hand again and wrote my name on his palm with my finger.

"Chell?" he asked. I nodded.

"Alright, enough of that," GLaDOS butted in, "Test Subject 2, return to the testing area."

Zack shrugged, and walked to the closed door.

"Congratulations at being remotely social," GLaDOS commented after he left, "Pick a room. You can wait here while I test other subjects."

Without a choice, I walked into the first room on the row, and sat on the bed. My wings were still aching from the endurance test, and the speed test didn't help. Involuntarily, I laid down and went to sleep.


	4. It Goes On

"I was just taking a small break!" I heard a male's voice protest in exasperation. It wasn't that other guy, Zack. I got up and left the room to investigate.

"Sitting there and whining is not a break. That is laziness. Besides, you will be given breaks periodically," I heard GLaDOS reply in that darkly calm voice that let's you know she's absolutely infuriated.

"I wasn't whining. I was simply pointing out all of the things in this place that break normal industry standard. And I wasn't being lazy," the guy replied. He must have a lot of guts to be talking like that (though I would probably be back talking to if I could talk). I found him in the kitchen area. He had a mess of blond hair and amber cat-like eyes. He also had pair of golden cat ears and a tail, both with black spots on them. He also seemed to have tannish spots on his skin. He even had spots in his hair. He looked like he was a bit younger than me, maybe 18 (I think I'm in my early 20's).

"You are-" GLaDOS began, but stopped. "Oh, hello, Test Subject #1. Meet Test Subject #3."

'Test subject #3' turned to look at me.

"Hiya!" he said casually, walking over to me, "I'm Ethan. According to _her_," he hooked his thumb toward the ceiling to indicate GLaDOS, "I'm now part cheetah." He grinned, revealing long, sharp canine teeth. "And you are?"

Once again I put my hand to my throat and shook my head.

"Ohh…" he said. I told him my name the same way I told Zack, and of course GLaDOS had to call me back to testing after that.

As I entered the test chamber, I couldn't help but be a bit distracted by the other two test subjects that I met. How many others will there be, and will they be as friendly as these two? I least I was so far proving GLaDOS wrong about my social skills by befriending them so quickly.

For the next tests I was, for once, allowed to use a portal gun. Yes, it finally went back to the usually testing instead of the painstaking tests that pushed my genetically enhanced limits. Of course, GLaDOS got creative now that I could fly.

After 25 tests, I finally trudged back through the door into the living area, only to meet yet another person. Her wolfish ears perked up the moment I came in, and she turned to look at me with equally wolfish blue eyes. She had a wolf's tail and light brown hair. She was even younger than Ethan, looking like she was 16.

"Hello," she greeted in a soft voice.

Before I could respond, her ears perked again and Ethan also stepped through the door.

"Hi!" he said coolly, even though he was bleeding from a cut on his arm.

"I'm Melody, though _she _calls me Test Subject #4," she told us, "What are your names?" She talked in a calm, soft voice, but I could tell that she was probably scared out of her mind from what she's seen here.

"I'm Ethan!" Ethan replied, as laid-back as ever. He pointed to me, "She can't talk, but her name is Chell!"

"Test Subject #4, it's time you returned to testing. As for you, Test Subjects #1 and #3, go to your respective cryogenic chambers for your break," GLaDOS instructed. She really didn't like it if we talked for a while. I guessed she just didn't want us to get close.

Melody did as she was told, but before I could, Ethan stopped me.

"I met this odd little core during testing. He said his name was Wheatley," he whispered, "he said that he would help us get out of here." He then returned to his chamber.

Wheatley must have been the core that woke me up. I wondered if he really could help us, since at times when I was with him he didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing.

Like when he powered up GLaDOS, for example.

But he was our only chance. GLaDOS was keeping a pretty close eye on all of us, especially me. Not that I blame her really after what happened the first time I escaped, but I was still annoyed since it was making my next escape a lot harder. Which I guess was the point.

I sighed and entered my room, knowing that I needed rest.

Life went on, locked away in Aperture. It turned out that GLaDOS had tried to create twenty mutants, but only the four of us, Zack, Ethan, Melody, and I, were the only ones who survived. I guess we can count our lucky stars on that one.

Anyway, our schedule became this: Five hours of testing, thirty minute break, five hours of testing, four hour break, repeat. We all had tones of stamina, but this constant stream of testing took its toll eventually.

GLaDOS tried to only keep one or two of us in the living area at a time during breaks and kept communication to a minimum. But, we all saw each other eventually, so we could still pass messages to each other. So, despite that AI's best efforts, we formed some sort of an alliance, with Melody call us the 'pack'.

Then there was Wheatley. We all saw him occasionally, and each time he said the same thing: "Hang in there! Keep testing! I'll get you out eventually mates!" As time went on, I doubted it, though.


	5. Escape

Remember when I told you that GLaDOS was trying to keep all of us separated? Well, it might have been just a glitch, or a minor miscalculation, but as it turns out, that core Wheatley had done something after all.

For some reason, all four of us were on our break in the living area at the same time, exactly what GLaDOS was trying to prevent.

"Alright," GLaDOS said calmly as we all stood in the living area, mischievous smiles spreading across our faces, "I'm sure that a few of you can postpone your break to fix this."

Before GLaDOS could give any orders, we heard a certain Brit's very bad attempt at an American accent.

"Hey, buddies!" we heard Wheatley say after a panel moved aside to reveal him, "I'm speaking in an accent that's beyond her range of hearing!"

Four mutants then face palmed in unison.

"Look, metalball," GLaDOS replied in agitation, "I _can_ hear you."

"Okay, I don't need to do the voice," Wheatley said in his usual British accent, "Everybody hold on!"

The entire living area lurched, and we could feel it get lifted up. He was apparently trying to move the entire thing. When he moved my cryogenic chamber, he rammed it into every single thing we came across, and I couldn't help but wonder what made him think moving something five times larger without worse results.

We all crouched down and got closer to the walls as the living area swung back and forth and often crashed into things.

"Can anyone see where this thing is going?" Zack hissed, leaning up against the wall across from me. We had been testing with GLaDOS for a while, probably a week, and during one of Zack's tests there was some sort of accident with a Hard Light Bridge. His eyesight began to diminish into blindness after that, but he had to keep testing because as his eyes worsened, his hearing dramatically increased until he developed echolocation like a real bat. Now, however, echolocation couldn't help him.

"This place is completely sealed in," Melody told him, scooting closer to him, "We can't see anything either."

"We're going in that direction, away from the main testing areas and toward the factory areas," Ethan said, pointing toward Wheatley.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Uhh…" he said as the living area lurched to one side, "I… I can feel vibrations coming from the walls here that come from the mechanical arms holding this thing and the thing the arms are attached to are grinding that way," he explained, pointing again, "and when this was on the ground, I could feel faint vibrations from a lot of machines moving in that direction, so I guessed it was some sort of factory."

Before any of us could react, Wheatley spoke up again.

"Seriously hold on!" Wheatley called just before the living area lurched steeply, sending us tumbling toward him. The living area fell for a moment before crashing to the ground. Wheatley opened more panels. "Everybody out! Run! Err, fly! Whatever your fastest movement is!"

"Listen, all of you," GLaDOS said in a soft voice as we all scrambled out of the living area, which was lying halfway on some sort of structure with the other half dangling over an abyss, "You know that I've taken good care of you. I even gave you food that matched your species."

She did give us food, but only just enough to keep going on our constant testing cycle. We ignored her and just took off. To set things straight, we were far beyond even the animals we were fused with. Zack and I could both fly at a speed of at least 150 mph now, and Ethan, being a cheetah, wasn't far behind while running in a sort of two-legged gallop, for at least a short period of time. Melody could run the same way, but wasn't as fast, and she could keep going for much longer than Ethan.

"You are major scientific achievements," GLaDOS pressed as Wheatley led us along his management rail, supposedly to a place GLaDOS couldn't control, "It would be such a waste if you were lost."

_First you make us mutant freaks, then you constantly insult us by calling us mutant freaks, and then you tell us we're major scientific achievements?_ I couldn't help but wonder. GLaDOS seriously contradicted herself sometimes.

"Oh, no," I heard Wheatley mutter. I saw that we were coming to a gap where the structure we were currently running along/flying over stopped and another one began. It wouldn't be a problem to me or Zack, but the gap was too wide for Ethan or Melody to jump. However, I had a plan.

I flew ahead of the group and hovered halfway across the gap, positioning myself in Ethan's path. I held out my hands, and he nodded, getting the message. He jumped off the edge of the building and grabbed my hands. I was able to stay up and swing him, using his own momentum, to the other side, where he landed and kept running. Zack had also stopped, and did the same for Melody.

"Nicely done!" Wheatley called, "Come on! She's bringing the whole place down!" I saw what he meant. GLaDOS seemed to be trying to push an entire test chamber in front of us to block our path. "On the other side of that chamber she's moving is a lift! I know you don't normally need lifts anymore, but it's the only way through to the other side of that wall!"

Ethan and Melody jumped off the structure they were running on and onto a catwalk that led right to the lift he was talking about, with me and Zack soaring barely a foot above their heads. Finally we all crashed into the lift and it began to ascend.

"Brilliant! You made it! I'll meet you on the other side!" we heard Wheatley call out.

We had all become pretty claustrophobic, but the ride didn't last until the other side of the lift opened up into a short hallway with a door on the other side.

"Well," Zack said calmly, "That was interesting."

"Zack," Melody said as we walked through the door, "Don't be so mad."

"What?" he asked in mild confusion. The rest of us were confused, too. Zack always seemed so calm, dark, and monotonous.

"I can feel the agitation coming off you, and it's been building lately," she answered in a slightly embarrassed way.

"Let me get this straight," Zack said. He turned to Ethan, "You can feel vibrations from far away?" he nodded and Zack turned to Melody, "and you can sense other people's anger?"

"I can sense other emotions too," the girl replied, "Like, I don't have to look at any of you to know that you're all surprised and confused."

"And then there's Zack's echolocation," Ethan pointed out.

I knew that all of us have abilities that came from what ever animal DNA we were mixed with, which would make sense for Zack's echolocation, but I'm sure that wolves can't sense other peoples' emotions just by being near them and that cheetahs can't feel vibrations from so far away just by touching something attached to it.

There was one thing that was bugging me: When was I going to get a special ability?


	6. Destruction!

**A/N: A lot of this chapter is pretty much the same as Chapter Five in Portal 2, except, of course, with four enhanced mutants instead of one mute lunatic.**

Still processing the fact that everyone else had a unique ability, we walked through the door onto a catwalk. Suddenly it hit me: We didn't have a portal gun.

"Ah! Brilliant! You made it through, well done!" Wheatley praised, sliding over our heads on his management rail, "Okay, follow me. We still got work to do. At least she can't touch us back here."

I was about to try to tell him the problem of not having a portal gun in a place like this, when the lights began to shut off.

"What's happening?" Wheatley asked nervously.

"She must be shutting off the lights around here," Ethan noted, "Do you think she forgot about our enhanced vision?"

It was almost completely dark, but with Zack having echolocation (not to mention being blind) and the rest of us having enhanced vision, the dark wasn't to bad on us. Wheatley apparently didn't know this and didn't hear Ethan.

"Okay, I've got an idea, but it is bloody dangerous," Wheatley said.

"Wheatley…" Melody said, trying to get his attention.

"Just stay calm," Wheatley ordered, not listening.

"We're fine in the da-" Zack began, but was cut off when Wheatley screamed and a light came from his optic.

"Oh, for god's… They told me if I ever turned this flashlight on, I would die!" Wheatley said exasperatedly, sliding away on his rail, "They told me about everything!" He continued to rant as we followed him along the catwalk.

"Wheatley," Zack called, interrupting him in his explanation of shutting off the turret production line and the neurotoxin generator, "Even with our enhancements, we all know that navigating a place like this will be difficult without a portal device," he pointed out calmly. I guess he was thinking the same thing.

"Oh, um, right…" Wheatley pondered, obviously having no idea what to do.

I heard Ethan snicker. I looked back at him, 'Ethan?' I mouthed. He snickered harder.

"I've been wonderin' when GLaDOS would notice," he laughed. He pulled out a portal gun from who-knows-where-he's-been-hiding-it.

"How'd you hide that?" Melody asked, giggling.

"I'm an expert thief. It was noted on my file," Ethan answered proudly, trying to talk in a monotone imitation of GLaDOS.

"Brilliant! Just brilliant!" Wheatley said, obviously relieved, "Now, as I was saying, we've got to head through this manufacturing area to the turret production factory so we can shut it down."

Ethan smirked at us when his theory about a factory was confirmed. In a place like this, an ability to know it when machinery moves would be very useful.

Wheatley continued to just ramble as we moved over conveyer belts toward our destination. He kept trying to get us to wait for him to hold the light steady whenever we had to jump somewhere, even though half of us had, you know, _wings_ and the other half were perfectly fine. He seemed to be a little freaked out by the fact that we weren't entirely human and kept stammering nervously whenever he said something about humans or animals, not that we cared.

Finally we came to a wall that seemed to mark the edge of the manufacturing area.

"Okay, we'll have to split up for a moment. Portal, err, fly, err, whatever you can do, up to that passage and I'll see you on the other side," Wheatley said, pointing the light at the opening to a hallway several feet above the catwalk.

Of course, Zack and I simply flew up there while the others had to use the gun. Ugh, Ethan still looked smug at successfully stealing a portal gun. I guess we owe him, though.

The hallway was short, ending with a rail on the other side of the wall. Wheatley shined his light on another wall for Ethan and Melody to use to portal over while Zack and I once again flew. He then led us to another wall that was over a catwalk.

Along the catwalk, we passed machines that were constantly building and boxing up turrets who where then sent to who-knows-where as Wheatley once again began to ramble, apparently still trying to cover himself up after making a comment on 'smelly humans'. Finally we came to an open area where massive tubes spiraled down with all sorts of junk ricocheting through them. Passed the tubing and several feet down was a hallway labeled 'Factory'.

"Right, well, I'll take this rail down the back way. See you at the bottom, good luck!" Wheatley said before quickly retreating on his rail. We glanced at each other, shrugged, and easily jumped on/flew over the tubing to the factory area.

We walked through the doors into the factory area and passed the 'Turret Redemption Lines' and the turret shooting area, more or less amused by the defective turrets. Then we entered an area where the defective turrets on the line were tossed and the functional turrets were allowed to pass. As we passed underneath the defective turret's flight path, Melody suddenly jumped up and grabbed a turret.

"Oh, thank god! You saved my bacon pal," the turret told her. She giggled at how the defective turrets way of speaking was so different from the high-pitched sadistic voice of normal turrets.

"Melody," Zack said to the teenager in a stern voice, "You know you can't keep that. We'll come across an emancipation grill sooner or later."

"I know," she replied softly, "I just wanted to try to catch one…"

"Hey, hey, hey!" the turret protested, "Don't just toss me away! Please, take me with you!"

Melody then turned to me with a pleading look. I looked back at her sternly.

'It would only get in the way,' I mouthed.

Melody shrugged and set it down on the catwalk. The turret continued to protest as we walked away along the catwalk.

"Brilliant! You made it through!" Wheatley said as we met up with him, "Follow me, you're gonna love this!"

He led us down into what looked like some sort of control room that overlooked the turret line.

"See that scanner there?" he said, gesturing out the window to the turret line, "It's figuring out which turrets to keep and which to toss, and it's using that master turret," he gestured to a turret that was sitting in it's own little room with a scanner, "as a template. If we pull out that template turret, it'll shut down the whole system."

Before he could go on, Ethan jumped feet-first into the door to the master turret, effectively breaking it down. He then ripped out the turret.

"Uh, I could have just hacked that door open, but that works, that works," Wheatley said nervously, eyeing Ethan's triumphant grin, which only widened when the turret suddenly exploded.

"Template missing," the announcer announced, "Continuing from memory."

"Great," Zack muttered, rolling his eyes. He looked up at Wheatley, "What now, smart one?" he asked in a slightly mocking tone.

"I, uh, well, um, I'll think of something," the core replied, his eye thingy twitching.

Ethan examined the scanner. "What if we put that defective turret on there?" he suggested.

Melody grinned and ran off to grab it.

"Oh, that's a brilliant idea! Brilliant!" Wheatley praised happily.

'How many times has he said 'brilliant'?' I mouthed. Ethan shrugged.

Melody returned and placed the defective turret on the scanner.

"New template accepted," came the announcer. The line then began to toss the functional turrets and keep the defective ones. Mutants one, GLaDOS zip.

We followed him out of the room and through what appeared to be a conference room that led to a hallway where several projects were lined up.

"'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day'," Wheatley read a large banner, "That did _not _end well. Aaaand, forty potato batteries. Embarrassing."

We walked along, examining the various potatoes, until we came to the one on the very end, which had an entire potato plant that grew right into the ceiling. My eyes immediately flashed to the bottom of the poster board behind the plant, which had a small note that said, 'by Chell'. _I remember now,_ I thought, clutching my head as the long-lost memories flashed through my mind. Melody put her hand on my shoulder. I looked at her and she jerked her head to the lone baking soda volcano, grinning in embarrassment.

We continued on until we finally made it to the neurotoxin generator. We eyed the massive cylindrical machine with several pipes coming out of either side as Wheatley attempted to hack it. Of course, we know he wouldn't get anywhere. Heck, he was trying to get whatever computer that was controlling it let its guard down for a minute to look at a _bird._

Zack and I circled it, searching for some sort of weakness while Ethan and Melody looked elsewhere for a solution.

Suddenly I had an idea. There were moving portal surfaces on each side of the generator, and we could use portals to direct the lasers at the tubes. I flew to where Ethan and Melody were standing.

"Look, Wheat', the generator isn't going to let you hack it just to see a bird that _isn't there_," Ethan pressed in annoyance.

I landed beside him and gestured to the gun and then to the laser, and finally to the surfaces.

"Oh, I get it," Ethan replied, grinning. He fired a portal at the wall the laser was aimed at and followed Zack closer to the generator. He then shot the other one at the panels until all the pipes were sliced. Mutants two, GLaDOS still zero.

"That did it! Neurotoxin at zero percent!" Wheatley called happily, "Hold on…"

Suddenly, the entire area began to shake.

"Warning! Neurotoxin pressure has reached dangerously unlethal levels!" the announcer warned. The neurotoxin generator collapsed inward and fell away into the abyss.

"Ha! The tube's broken!" Wheatley yelled, "We can ride it straight to her!"

Zack grabbed my shoulder, and I realized that going into that tube won't be easy for a winged blind guy.

"WOOOHOOO!" Ethan yelled, leaping into the tube in a Superman pose.

"Tuck your wings in," Melody suggested, seeing our dilemma, "And head straight for the airflow." Zack nodded, and she followed Ethan through the tube with us close behind.

Going through that tube was like flying, except with your wings tucked tightly against your sides and your constantly slamming into the sides of the tube. So, yeah, it wasn't much like flying at all.

Wheatley joined Ethan and Melody on 'WOOHOO'ing and 'YEEHAAW'ing, and I guess I would have too if I had functional vocal cords, and Zack was just… Zack, the dark, quiet type.

However, up ahead two tubes joined in an intersection, and while the Zack and I went straight, Wheatley, Ethan, and Melody were knocked into the other tube.

"We-we're going the wrong way!" Wheatley called helplessly, "Get to her! We'll find youuuu!"


	7. Wheatley's Betrayal

Zack and I fell out of the tube and onto a rickety catwalk next to a staircase. We cautiously walked up the stairs and through an opening in the wall into what remained of a dilapidated hallway. The way forward was blocked off by fallen debris, and to the right the hallway led on to a door, which was closed even though the light on it was green, and it remained closed when we approached it. Halfway between the way we entered and the door, a piece of the hallway jutted out with part of the wall stripped away, revealing a vast abyss with massive structures in the distance.

We stood on the edge of the floor, staring out in the distance. Or rather, I stared, and I could hear the faint clicks Zack was making for his echolocation. This place felt strangely familiar. Looking to the left, I could see what remained of a glass hallway that must have once led to a large, cylindrical structure in front of us. To the right, there was a portal-ready surface lit up by several lights. Since Zack was blind, I couldn't point to it, or even tell him what direction it was in, I took his shoulders and turned him toward it.

He clicked, then looked at me. I took off, flying toward it, and Zack followed, following the sound of my near-silent wing beats. We've never flown in such an open space before, and I felt a surge of freedom. Of course, it would be short-lived. We circled the illuminated portal surface, and I could see that there was a room underneath it. All of its walls were made of metal, so that if someone who couldn't fly entered through the portal surface above it, they wouldn't be able to get out. There was a single door in the middle of one wall, and I could see from the air a sign on it that read, 'GLaDOS Emergency Shutdown and Cake Dispensary: Keep Unlocked'.

I couldn't help but smile. It was laughably obvious that this was a trap, but we had no idea where else to go. Who knows, if this is where I think this is, it would probably lead us straight to GLaDOS.

I swooped into the room, and Zack followed. Barely ten seconds after we landed, the portal surface fell onto the room, sealing us in. The door fell, revealing bare wall behind it.

"I honestly, TRULY didn't think you'd fall for that," We heard GLaDOS say. Several panels on the wall the door rested on jerked up, like they were looking at us, and the wall slid closer in. "In fact, I devised a much more elaborate trap for when you got through this easy one," the sadistic AI went on as more walls began to close in. Zack and I backed to the center of the room, back to back, our claustrophobia acting up. "If I'd known you'd let yourselves get captured this easily, I would have just dangled a turkey leg on a rope from the ceiling."

The floor slid apart down the middle, and we fell through into a relaxation vault, which was quickly sealed on the top. The relaxation vault moved forward toward a wall of panels that quickly moved away, revealing GLaDOS. Some sort of heat began to build inside me at the sight of her.

"What's going on? Where are we?" Zack urgently whispered to me. Oh right, we were in a glass box. His echolocation was useless. Unfortunately, I didn't really have anyway to tell him.

"Well, it was nice catching up. Let's get to business," the AI said calmly, "I hope you brought something stronger than a portal gun this time… Oh, it appears you don't even have that. Well. I'm afraid you're both about to become immediate past presidents of the Being Alive Club, ha, ha. Seriously though, goodbye."

Several mechanical arms lowered turrets around the vault. I smirked when I noticed that they were defective.

"It's my big chance!" one of the turrets said confidently. Click, click, click! "This is trouble…"

As the turrets attempted to shoot, they caught fire and exploded, effectively weakening the glass.

"Oh, you were busy back there," GLaDOS commented calmly, turning away slightly, "I suppose we could just sit in this room and glare at each other until somebody drops dead," her optic snapped back toward us, "but I have a better idea. It's your old friend, deadly neurotoxin." A tube extended toward the vault, breaking some of the glass to get in. "If I were you, I would take a deep breath, and hold it."

At this point both me and Zack were smirking, especially when we, err, I, saw what was actually coming out of the tube, and he could hear them.

"Ouch! Gak! Agh!" Wheatley, Ethan, and Melody were tumbling head-over-tail through the tube, falling into the vault and causing the glass to shatter.

"Oh, man," Ethan grumbled, standing up, "You know, the tube ride was fun until we were separated…"

"Gotta agree, mate," Wheatley said from the floor as Melody picked him up.

We stood shoulder-to-shoulder, facing the large mainframe. This time, I wasn't alone against her. In fact, this time I was genetically enhanced to have _wings_. I could probably give her a heck of a time if I fluttered around her 'head', ha, ha; that was an amusing thought. But, I needed to stay alert. The heat was increasing, and I was beginning to feel twitchy.

"I hate you so much," GLaDOS stated darkly, her optic directed on me.

"Warning: Central core is eighty percent corrupt," the announcer announced.

"That's funny, I don't feel corrupt. In fact, I feel pretty good."

"Alternate core detected."

"Oh! That's ME they're talkin' about!" Wheatley said excitedly.

"To initiate a core transfer, please deposit substitute core in receptacle," the announcer instructed.

"Core transfer? Oh, you are _kidding _me," GLaDOS growled.

Melody, despite the AI's protests, plugged Wheatley into the receptacle.

"Substitute core accepted," came the announcer, "Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?"

"Yes!" the sphere replied.

"Corrupted core, are you ready to start the procedure?"

"NO!" GLaDOS protested.

"Oh, yes she is!" Wheatley pressed.

"Nononononono!"

"Stalemate detected. Transfer procedure cannot continue," the announcer said.

"Yes!" GLaDOS said in triumph. Short-lived triumph.

"…Unless a stalemate associate is present to press the stalemate resolution button," the announcer finished.

The heat had increased to the point of it being nearly unbearable, and my wings lashed out in an irritated flutter. Melody put her hand on my shoulder with a questioning look.

Panels on the wall slid out of the way to reveal a button.

"Go press it!" Wheatley urged.

"Don't do it," GLaDOS advised, like she was lecturing a bunch of children who wanted to start a fire in the house to roast marshmallows, "You don't know what you're doing."

Ethan ran toward it, but even with his cheetah-like speed, a panel on the floor flashed up and threw him backward.

"Not so fast," GLaDOS said in a mocking tone.

That did it. Something snapped. I was standing by the relaxation vault, but in less than a blink of an eye, I was hovering right in front of her optic. I spun around in a roundhouse kick, smacking the side of her 'head'. I turned, and in another split second I was standing by the button, with everyone, including myself, not exactly sure how I got there. GLaDOS's head was turned slightly to the side, but other than that, to be honest, that kick did a big fat nothing.

"What…?" GLaDOS said softly. She was glaring daggers at me, but I could hear a hint of confusion in her tone. I was confused too.

However, without hesitating, I smacked my palm down onto the stalemate resolution button. GLaDOS reared up, sparks flying, then fell limp.

"Stalemate resolved," the announcer said.

I walked away from the button, suddenly feeling extremely weak. My wings felt like they were on fire, like I had flown through GLaDOS's endurance test fifty times.

"How'd you do that?" Ethan asked, grinning, "It was like you teleported!"

I just shrugged, wanting to lie down and sleep for, oh, maybe a week.

I forced myself to stay awake and just sat down on the floor to watch what will happen to GLaDOS and Wheatley.

I must have dozed off, though, since the next time I looked, GLaDOS's core was sitting on the ground and Wheatley was on the mainframe, rambling on about how 'bloody amazing' it was.

"Oh! Right! The escape lift, I'll call it now!" Wheatley said cheerfully after a reminder from Zack. An elevator rose up from the ground. "Hmm. It looks a bit small for all of you to go in at once. No worries, you can just go one at a time." He glanced at me. Seeing that I was still panting from exhaustion after whatever-it-was-that-I-did, he added, "Don't worry, we'll wait until you're ready."

After a moment, he kept talking. "Let me tell ya, I knew it would be cool to be in charge of everything, but," Confetti fell from the ceiling and he began juggling cubes with panels on the floor, "Wow, this is cool! And check this out, I'm a bloody genius now!" He said something in another language. "I don't even know what I just said, but I can find out!"

He paused and looked at us expectantly. Just wanting to get out of here, we just smiled and nodded. "This body is amazing, seriously! I can't get over how small you guys are, but I'm huge!"

I began to recover, and we started to make our way to the elevator as Wheatley started laughing. As he kept laughing, it became more and more… threatening.

Suddenly the elevator lowered itself away again. "Actually, why do you guys have to leave right now? Do you have any idea how good this feels?"

"Hey! You promised you would let us go!" Ethan protested. I looked at him and saw that his nails had extended and sharpened into sharp claws, and that Melody's had done the same. I wondered how long this had gone on without me noticing.

"Oh, c'mon, mates!" Wheatley said, "I'm sure that we could have a lot more fun testing now than we did with her in charge! I mean, look at me! I did this! Tiny little Wheatley did this!"

"You didn't do anything…" We looked over in surprise at GLaDOS's core, "_They_ did all the work!"

"Oh, that's what the five of you think, is it?" Wheatley growled, "Well, maybe it's time I did something then!"

A small mechanical arm reached out from under the mainframe, pulling GLaDOS under despite her protests.

"And don't think I'm not on to you too, _freaks_," Wheatley said, his voice dropping into a threatening tone, "You know what you guys are? Selfish! I've done nothing but sacrifice for you guys, and what have you done? Nothing! Zero!"

"You've sacrificed?" Zack countered, his voice a seething hiss, "All you've done is hang from the ceiling while we ran around risking our lives to get out of here!"

"SHUT UP!" Wheatley roared, making us leap back.

_Ding_!

"Ahh," Wheatley said, his voice suddenly calm, as a mechanical arm from under his mainframe held up a potato with what appeared to be a small yellow core grafted into it. "See this? This is a potato battery, a toy for children. And now, she lives in it!"

That was GLaDOS? Under any other circumstances I would have dropped to the floor laughing.

"I know you…" we suddenly heard GLaDOS say softly.

"What?" Wheatley asked, whipping around to face her.

"The engineers tried everything to make me… behave. To slow me down," she explained with bitterness in her voice, "Once, they even installed an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me. It clung to my brain like a tumor, generating an endless stream of _terrible_ ideas."

Wheatley had turned away from her. "No, not listening!" he said, as if he already knew what she was talking about and wanted to deny it.

"It was _your_ voice," she hissed.

"No! You're lying! You're _lying_!"

"Yes, you're the tumor," she stated, as if she enjoyed his discomfort, "You're not a regular moron. You were _designed _to be a moron."

"I am NOT a MORON!" Wheatley protested, swinging her at our heads, which we dodged easily.

"YES YOU ARE!" GLaDOS yelled, "YOU'RE THE MORON THEY BUILT TO MAKE ME AN IDIOT!"

"Well, how about NOW? NOW WHO'S A MORON?" he yelled in a fury, throwing her down the hole left by the elevator. We listened, but didn't hear the thump of her hitting the elevator's top. Perhaps the elevator was removed and she was falling all the way down the shaft?

"And as for _you_," he swung around to face us, "You four will be put back into testing IMMEDIATELY!"

We were grabbed from behind by mechanical arms, and another relaxation vault slid into the room beside the shattered one. We were dropped in, and the top was sealed.

Wheatley glared at us as it slid out of the chamber, heading for the testing track.


	8. Even More Tests, For Crying Out Loud!

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, guys! Also, I had changed my mind about a certain problem that began at the end of Ch. 4 and was throughout Ch. 5 and 6, so go check those chapters again.**

The vault we were in stopped outside a test chamber, and we had to wait inside it for at least two hours while Wheatley built the test. Throughout the entire wait, we could hear him either grumble about how hard making a test chamber is or chuckle about how difficult it will be for us to solve it. Knowing him, we weren't sure what to expect.

"Alright mates! It's all ready!" Wheatley called cheerfully as the portal in the vault that led into the test chamber opened.

Once inside the chamber, it took us about three seconds to figure out what we were supposed to do. There was some sort of chasm in the middle of the room, and jutting out into it was a platform with a small button on it. On the other side of the chasm was a cube dispenser that was directly above a large button. All we had to do was press the button and go to the other side.

"Made this test chamber myself," Wheatley announced proudly from a big TV screen, as if we didn't already know that, "It's a bit difficult. Feel free to, you know, chat, talk it over, collaboratively figure it out."

"What's down here?" Ethan wondered aloud, jumping into the chasm.

"DON'T GO IN THERE! DON'T-" Wheatley yelled as he jumped. The chasm was only about ten feet deep and completely empty; even without Long-Fall boots Ethan was perfectly fine. "That is the deadly moat area. Extremely dangerous," Wheatley warned.

"Extremely dangerous, huh?" Ethan said, wandering around in the chasm.

"Maybe you should get out of there," Melody suggested jokingly.

"Look, it_ will_ be dangerous, just not yet," Wheatley said exasperatedly, "Just solve the test, please?"

Ethan shrugged and easily jumped out of the pit with feline agility.

"I don't think we should test," Zack said with calm venom, "After all, you did promise to let us go."

The rest of us nodded in agreement. Wheatley rolled his optic like he couldn't believe this was happening.

"Look, it's hard to explain, you've just _got_ to test, okay? We'll only do five, no, ten more chambers, and then I'll let you go like I promised. It's just that I have this, this _itch_, you know? I've just got to test! I've just got to test!" Wheatley explained.

We glanced at each other suspiciously, and finally I walked over to the button and practically punched it.

"Oh, yeeesss, well done," Wheatley praised like he was getting a massage as we flew/jumped to the other side of the chasm, not bothering to use the portal gun. "You know what?" Wheatley said as we exited the chamber. There was another TV in the hallway we were in, and the door to the elevator remained closed. "Since making tests is so difficult, why don't you guys keep solving _this_ test?" he suggested, a panel on the wall opening so we could reenter the chamber.

Sighing in annoyance, but figuring this would be a whole lot easier, we walked into the chamber and pressed the button again.

"Aaaaand," Wheatley said in anticipation as the dispenser opened and the cube fell, "Nothing," he said in disappointment when it hit the button, "Huh. Disappointing. But, you can't blame me for trying."

We once again walked into the hallway and waited irritably as he searched for new tests.

"Does that last test count as two since we did it twice?" Melody asked. An excellent point.

"NO," Wheatley answered rather quickly and aggressively. The boys tensed at this, but at that moment Wheatley had apparently found some new tests since the door leading to the elevator opened. We briskly entered the room and crammed into the elevator, our claustrophobia worsening our mood.

And if you haven't already figured it out, it's not wise to worsen the mood of our pack.

We continued to test, and things got worse. The test chambers were difficult; at least they were supposed to be, since it was obvious that they were designed to be solved by a single human, not four mutants.

As we kept going, Wheatley became very, for lack of a better word, pissy. He got mad if we used our unique abilities too much, saying that it was cheating, and he became less and less satisfied with our performance. I mean, at first it sounded like something made him feel all rosy inside whenever we completed a test, but as time went on he started saying that there was something wrong with the way we were testing.

Since testing was so easy now, we ignored Wheatley and practiced our new abilities. When we entered a chamber, Ethan would close his eyes, touch the ground with his hand and tell us what was in the chamber. Nine times out of ten, he was right. I practiced my 'teleporting', which I found out the hard way wasn't really teleporting. It turns out that I can just move really, _really_ fast, like, not as fast as light or sound but faster than anyone's eyes can detect.

What I mean by 'the hard way' is that I tried to teleport to the other side of a wall and ended up making a Chell-shaped hole in the wall. And no, I didn't punch all the way through, but had to peel myself out of it.

Anyway, Zack just did what he did best, and I guess Melody was keeping her emotion-sensing practices to herself, which was fine with me.

After a number of test chambers that I have no idea of, other than that it was way over ten, Wheatley suddenly began to act happy again, but in a different way, which made me nervous. He also began to promise a surprise, which just increased my suspicion on what he was about to do. Or try to do, anyway.

"Just one more test chamber until your big surprise!" Wheatley said cheerfully as we walked out of a test chamber to an elevator.

"What do you think he's planning?" Zack whispered to me. I shrugged, but then I remembered he couldn't see, and wasn't sure how to respond.

"…She's shrugging, Zack," Ethan explained with a slight chuckle.

"I know," he replied much to everyone's confusion. Perhaps he's just that keen.

With obvious sighs of relief, we clambered out of the elevator and walked up to the next chamber as we have for the past… I really don't know how many chambers.

We entered a chamber that was completely empty.

"Surprise!" Wheatley said happily, "We're doing it now!"

"And what, exactly, is _it_?" Ethan hissed, his claws extending.

"Well, I looked through HER notes, and figured out how to make my own little freaks!" he explained, "So, basically, I don't need you anymore!"

Some panels slid away, and several cages were revealed, as well as the dark, snarling figures inside them.

"To be honest, they aren't really that good at testing, but I'll tell you one thing," Wheatley paused and chuckled, "They are _really_ good at ripping things apart! If you, um, get what I'm saying…"

"Yeah, we get it," Zack growled, snapping his wings out.

"Alright then! Let the games… Begin!" The cages opened, and the grossest, and saddest, things that I have ever seen loped out.

There was this one guy who had a wolf's muzzle that was foaming constantly, one of its arms was the foreleg of a wolf, and his legs were both mostly human, but larger and with paws. It had a tail, and random patches of its skin were covered in fur. The others were similar, but with different animals. There was one with a beak, tail feathers and even claws on its bare feet, and one who had half of its face that of a bear and the other half human. They limped, they growled, they looked like they were thrown together haphazardly, and they all had this mad glare in there glazed eyes as they rushed toward us.

We prepared to fight, and somewhere inside I was glad he set these things on us. I had been wanting to use my new abilities to bash some skulls, and from the looks of the others they felt the same way.

With a hiss of fury, I leaped into the air and snapped my wings out; luckily the ceiling was rather high. I swooped toward the thing with the beak and hit him on the, well, beak. I kind of hurt my hand, but it squawked in pain, so it was worth it. Furiously, it snapped at me with that thing and flapped its arms like it wanted to fly too, but I flew out of reach, swooped down and gave it a harsh kick on its back, pushing it over and knocking the breath out of it. Ethan had been pushing the bear guy back with vicious swipes of his claws, before diving down and forcing its feet out from under it, making it fall on top of the thing with the beak.

Mr. Beak tried to force Mr. Bear off, making Mr. Bear agitatedly whip around and harshly bite Mr. Beak on the arm. Mr. Beak shrieked, and the two began to brawl on the floor, forgetting about the other mutants they were supposed to kill.

Looking around, I saw that there were still plenty of beasties to fight, including a guy with a lizard-like head and a tail that he was using as a whip against Melody, keeping her from getting close enough to attack him. Zack was squaring off with the wolf guy, and had grabbed hold of its back, making the thing try to whirl around to get at him, but fail. Zack, as he touched the creature, suddenly got a glazed look on his face for a second, then a look of realization crossed his face. I wondered, and I was probably correct, that he got a new ability.

"Guys!" he called, "Attack them where their animal parts and human parts come together! Those are their weak points!"

"How do you know?" Ethan called back.

"I can feel it when I touch them!" Zack replied. He jumped off its back and punched the wolf guy right where its muzzle was attached to its human face. Surprisingly, a gash ripped open like the two parts had been split, and the thing howled with agony. I guess Wheatley really didn't put these things together very well.

I flew over to the lizard thing that Melody was fighting, sneaking up behind it to avoid the tail. When I got the chance, I grabbed hold of the tail at it's base, and pulled back as hard as I could. The lizard guy hissed, and thrashed around to escape my grip, which really only made things worse for it. With it distracted, Melody ran up to it and raked her claws across an area on its chest where skin ended and a patch of scales began, ripping them off.

Meanwhile, Zack faced a guy who had a big poof of hair around his head and long fangs to match. It roared and charged, and he dodged nimbly to the side, grabbing a handful of its mane as it passed. It hissed and whirled around to face him, only to get a kick in the face.

Ethan faced two creatures with antlers on either side of him. They both charged, and he did the classic maneuver in which he jumped out of the way at the last second and they crashed into each other. The two beasts, once they got their antlers untangled, began to fight each other like Mr. Beak and Mr. Bear still were.

"Okay, okay, this is not supposed to be happening," Wheatley said nervously after he noticed that we were actually winning, "Alright, need to send in more freaks…"

One of the cages slid away as if to let another one come up, but in an instant we went through the gap it made before anything could stop us.

"WAIT WAIT DON'T GO!" Wheatley yelled after us. He was ignored, of course.

We ran through a room full of caged… genetic mistakes, like the ones we just bashed heads with. Some cowered in the corner of their cages, others snarled at us, others banged their heads against the cage bars. Others looked dead. We remembered that GLaDOS had said that out of twenty mutants she tried to make, only the four of us had survived. And, obviously, she was a lot better at cutting up and putting together genes than Wheatley. So, why was Wheatley able to make so many living freaks while she couldn't?

"What now?" Ethan asked as we ran out of the room and onto a catwalk. I stopped running and looked at him square in the eye.

'What else?' I mouthed silently, 'We need to find _her_.'

Ethan and Melody looked at each other and at me in confusion while Zack remained impassive, which was only to be expected.

"You know, she's probably dead," Melody pointed out, "Wheatley threw her down a shaft that not even we could hear the end to."

'I know,' I mouthed in reply, 'But we should at least look. What other chance do we have?'

"Are you guys talking about finding GLaDOS?" Zack asked, unable to read my lips.

"Yep," Melody answered, "And I guess that's what we're going to do."

We turned, and continued down the catwalk.


	9. Hello, PotaDOS

We continued down the catwalk in silence. I knew we would have to find the Central AI Chamber to find the shaft that GLaDOS was thrown down, and I had a strange sense of direction and knew where it was. The others just followed me.

Somewhere in the distance, we could hear Wheatley calling out from the intercom systems in several buildings around us, saying things like, "Hello? Anyone out there? Oh, come on, come back! I, uh, just want to congratulate you on, um, passing your final test! I didn't really want to kill you! Just come on back!" Of course, we knew better than that.

Obviously, the catwalk couldn't have taken us on a straight shot to the Central AI Chamber, and I eventually felt like we were going the wrong way. Looking over the edge of the catwalk, I saw, at least a hundred feet down, another catwalk going in the right direction. I silently pointed it out to everyone, and one by one we jumped down onto it. Zack and I, being able to fly, could land on it softly without stressing it, but of course neither Ethan nor Melody could really cushion their falls. They landed with a loud _CLANG_, and the rickety catwalk fell apart somewhere behind us, making one end fall.

Zack and I jumped off while the others hung on to the rail, waiting as the catwalk went vertical. We flew while they easily climbed, and eventually we were far enough away from the breakage that the catwalk was horizontal again.

We kept traveling; jumping between catwalks and structures in what I was sure was the right direction. All around us, we could see Wheatley moving massive buildings around, several times knocking them over or banging them against each other, and even heard traces of him swearing about having butterfingers. Not to mention the tremors that were becoming increasingly recurrent. At first only Ethan paid any mind to them, but lately they'd been getting stronger and we were all worrying.

Eventually we finally made it to the Central AI Chamber, for once not actually going into it. We found the very bottom of it and checked around until we found the shaft that we were sure was the one that the elevator had been in. We were right; it had been moved out of the way before GLaDOS was thrown into it. We found the elevator in some sort of chamber that was overgrown with plants far below the AI chamber; detached from the shaft, thrown onto its side and with every bit of glass it had on it shattered.

"You know, odds are we'll find a few electronic bits and some mashed potatoes down there," Ethan pointed out as we knelt at the edge of the dark shaft and stared down into it..

"You've got a point, but we really don't have any other option," Melody reasoned. She's always been the reasonable one.

We heard growling and some sort of strangled howl, and looked behind us to see more of those poor, ravaged beasts that Wheatley had created sniffing around the ferns in the chamber.

"Whether that AI's mashed potatoes or not," Zack said gravely, "we'll have to go down there anyway to avoid those things."

I nodded in agreement, and wondered how we'd be able to get everyone down the hole. Zack and I could fly, but the others couldn't. We had no idea what was down there, and even if they could survive the fall, it wouldn't help if there were acid or lava at the bottom. I wondered if we could hold on to them somehow…

There was a loud roar coming from behind us, and we turned to see that one of the beasts had noticed us, and was loping toward us as others caught on and followed.

"Time to take a chance," Zack said calmly. He linked arms with Ethan and they jumped down the shaft.

Melody and I stood up, and I felt the younger girl put her arms around my waist. I looked down at her pityingly; as calm and reasonable as she normally acted, she was still practically a kid. Keeping a firm grip on her, we jumped as well.

I spread my wings a bit to slow our fall, wincing when they scraped against the shaft's walls, and kept us well above the boys. As we fell down the shaft, I noticed that there were signs on the walls that kept track of how far down we were. Even though there were only a few seconds before they passed by, I could still read them clearly.

2875 meters…

3000 meters…

3250 meters…

We fell for a long time, which was partly because we were slowing our fall. The last measurement I saw before we had to bash through some wooden planks was 4375 meters.

At the bottom of the shaft, we swooped out from under it and landed safely. The place seriously looked like an underground cave with metal walls and a dirt floor, as well as piles of debris, some on fire for some reason, scattered about. The place seriously gave me the creeps.

We searched the area around us, and to our surprise, we didn't find any mashed potatoes. We did, however, find a few crow feathers, which was rather confusing. How did a bird get so far underground? Why would a bird _want_ to be underground? Being 20% bird, I really didn't understand this.

Splashing through puddles of water, the group was unnaturally quiet as we walked through some sort of tunnel full of debris into a wider area. This place was in even worse condition than the last. It looked like everything was old and deteriorating, and there were massive structures that reached high into, well, foggy nothingness that not even I could see. Printed in frickin' huge yellow numbers way up on the sides of some of the buildings was '09'. I wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but took note of it.

Zack and I could have easily flown anywhere in the area that we would want to go, but we stayed close to the flightless members of the pack. We soon began to follow some sort of stone walkway through some big metal rings, completely ignoring the 'DO NOT ENTER' signs as we walked towards a wall that had a row of doors along it. Each door was locked, with a 'KEEP OUT' sign on them. Also on the wall were notices of the place being condemned as of 1961. They warned us to not 'Look at, touch, ingest, or engage in conversation with any substances beyond this point'. On the bottom left hand corner of each notice was the logo for 'Aperture Science Innovators'. Hmm. Seems like Aperture's changed since it was first built.

We flew/portaled our way forward, whichever way 'forward' was being determined by whichever way we all could go. There were increasing numbers of warning signs that we had to ignore, one even saying that this particular 'Enrichment shaft' could contain unsafe quantities of 'cosmic ray spallation elements'. Whatever that is.

We continued for several minutes until we came to a catwalk that traveled through a tunnel. At the end of it was a gate with a lever beside it that probably opened it. We could easily go over it, but just to see what would happen Ethan just _haaaad_ to pull that lever.

Sparks flew, the gate opened, and a few lights came on, revealing a frickin' _huge_ vault door. We walked closer to it and examined the room around us. There were two control stations on either side of the vault with timers on each that would start when we pressed a button and would go for about four seconds. Since there was no other way to continue forward, we pressed the buttons at the same time.

The lights went off, a swirling spotlight that aimed near the vault door came on, and alarms blared. We tensed; still surprised that such long-abandoned technology could still work. The vault door slowly rose and we could see nothing but blackness behind it.

The lights inside came on to reveal… a completely blank wall with a normal-sized push-open door.

"That's it?" Ethan asked in a disappointed tone. I shrugged, and we walked through the door.

On the other side was what looked like an underground dock, with notices to warn people that the water was electrocuted, and several large, metal, broken spheres submerged in it. As we walked along, debris continued to fall into the water and we even felt a tremor. I noticed the year '1952' printed in large white letters on the wall. We portaled through a broken door on the wall and had to pull a lever to get past a door at the end of a short hallway. On the other side was a large open area with "Aperture Innovators" in large metal letters and the logo hanging from the ceiling. What was most surprising was when a prerecorded message of a human male voice played.

"Welcome gentlemen to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians; you're here because we want the best, and you're it! So, who's ready to make some science?" he said enthusiastically.

"I am!" came a female voice.

The male voice laughed a bit. "Now, you've already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself. I'm Cave Johnson. I own the place. That eager voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest assured, she has transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of your choice. Isn't that right, Caroline?"

"Yes sir, Mister Johnson!" came 'Caroline's' cheerful reply.

"She's the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard, too. Sorry fellas, she's married. To science!"

"Caroline and Cave Johnson?" Zack wondered aloud.

"I wonder what happened to them…" Melody said softly.

We continued on, listening as Cave talked about tests and how his prerecorded messages will assist us on our 'science adventure'. We made our way to an extremely high lift, which due to our claustrophobia issues Zack and I flew to the top while Ethan and Melody rode it. Cave Johnson said something about 'Repulsion Gel testing', as well as people who had apparently volunteered to be injected with prey mantis DNA actually having to fight an army of mantis men. So, we actually weren't the first mutants Aperture has made…

After pushing forward in our quest to apparently find a potato, pulling levers and finding our way through deteriorating control areas, guess where we eventually ended up? Yes, on an elevator headed to testing. Sure, it was among the first tests that Aperture has ever overseen, but still.

We ended up in testing that involved Repulsion Gel, which was some sort of blue liquid that if you jumped or fell onto you would bounce. We took a few moments to have some comic relief with this, but of course had to solve the test to move forward. However, we did learn why those tall structures back there had '09' on them; apparently this was the bottom of testing track 09. It looked like from a map that we saw that the best way up would be to go through the tests. Great.

We continued through _even more_ test chambers, playing with the gel rather than actually using it due to our amazing abilities. We weren't sure if we were going the right way; if GLaDOS was carried off by a crow then she could be anywhere, even dead. We weren't even sure if finding her was a good idea, but we had to do something about Wheatley, and going back now was impossible.

We pushed on and completed that particular testing track. Finally, we came to some sort of metal platform type area underneath one of the testing spheres. There was an elevator high up that seemed to lead to the sphere, and up against a rock wall was a control area with two floors. While the others looked for a way to get the flightless ones up to the elevator, I decided to poke around in the control room.

And what do you know.

"Oh hi. Say, you're good at murder. Could come- ow- murder this bird for me? Ow!"

Why, hello PotaDOS.

"Just kill it and we'll call things even between us! No hard feelings?" Well, wasn't that a pleading voice.

I entered the room she was in, scaring the crow away.

"Oh, thanks!" GLaDOS said with genuine gratitude. At least that's what it sounded like. Suddenly a tremor shook the place. "Did you feel that? That idiot doesn't know what he's doing up there. This whole place is going to explode in a few hours if somebody doesn't disconnect him. I can't move, and unless you're planning to saw your own head off and wedge it into my old body, you're going to need me to replace him. We're at an impasse. So what do you say? You carry me up there and put me back into my body, I stop us from blowing up and let you go."

I paused, staring at her suspiciously.

"No tricks," she said like she knew what I was thinking, "This potato only generates 1.1 volts of electricity. I literally do not have the energy to lie to you."

She kept talking while I paced around, thinking. Yes, the entire purpose of us jumping down that hole was to find this potato, and it was even my idea. But now that I was face-to-face with her again, my previous do-not-trust-her instincts kicked in.

"Listen to me," GLaDOS pressed, "We had a lot of fun testing and antagonizing each other, and yes, sometimes it went too far-"

"Too far?"

We were both surprised by that, especially me. Because not only had that voice come from my own throat, a throat that I thought an infection almost destroyed when I was a kid, but it sounded absolutely 110% exactly like GLaDOS's voice, before she was put into a potato. It had that exact same dark, angry edge to it that she had when she was talking to me right after she was reactivated, which was probably because that last comment made me pretty angry. I had put my hand to my throat and backed up until I was leaning up against the wall, coughing a bit like I hoped that I only sounded like that because of something strange in my throat, which unfortunately there wasn't.

The potato had fallen silent for the next minute or so.

"…I knew that the DNA mutations were causing some sort of change in your larynx, but I didn't expect it to develop into mimicry…" GLaDOS said slowly, mostly to herself, "Can you mimic anyone else?"

Great, now she's back in science-obsessed mode instead of help-me-I'm-a-potato mode. But the really crazy thing? I was thinking, trying to see if I could do what she said. I thought about Wheatley's amusing accent, but after what I've seen, thinking of him just made me mad and somehow I knew that being angry made me more likely to mimic _her_ voice. I honestly didn't want to do that again. That and a guy's voice would be a bit harder anyway.

Melody, however, had a smooth, soft voice that I had a feeling wouldn't be too hard… The only reason GLaDOS's had come so naturally was because, well, I might as well have heard it all my life. For as long as I can remember clearly, at least-

"Say something!" she urged impatiently.

"Shut up!" was the first thing that came to my mind. Not to mention that it was also in GLaDOS's voice. _Well done, Chell, well done_, I thought, in what I hoped was my own voice, not that I actually had one.

"Okay, we'll work on that later," GLaDOS said calmly, "Now, back to business. You'll need me to keep us from-"

"I get it, okay?" I said exasperatedly in apparently the only voice I can master.

"You don't need to have such an attitude, especially when you're mimicking me," the potato scolded. Now I was being scolded by a potato. My life officially fell under the 'strange' category. "I'm being serious, that gets annoying. Can't you mimic someone else?"

Well, if she'd just let me think before…

"I can," I replied in the first female voice that popped into my head other than GLaDOS's. It wasn't Melody's.

"Hey, that sounds familiar," she commented as I picked her up, which apparently affected something since she had been sitting on a button and alarms blared for a minute. Because of this, Zack flew into the control room.

"What happened? The elevator's coming do-" he paused when he noticed the potato in my hand.

Well, explaining my new ability is going to be fun.


	10. We Move On, and Not Much Else

**A/N: WARNING: A ton of dialogue without much action ahead! Hey, it couldn't be helped.**

It was pretty awkward explaining what my new ability was. GLaDOS did most of the talking, as usual, and used several long science-y terms that no one really understood, even though the bottom line was simple: I don't have my own voice, though I can mimic any voice I hear.

Afterwards, however, it was time to consider what to do next.

The four of us, well, five now I guess, gathered below the control room.

"Well?" Zack said with a dark edge to his voice, "Should we believe all this talk about letting us go if we put _her_ back in charge?"

"Isn't that what we came down here for in the first place?" Melody pointed out, "We have to do _something_ about Wheatley, especially now that we know he's going to blow this place up!"

Wow, Melody's never been this outspoken. Usually she was almost as quiet as me, and I realized that I didn't know her as well as I knew the others. She seemed to be stronger and more determined than she previously let on. I wondered what spurred her on.

Due to it hurting my throat, I was still uncomfortable with using my new ability, and was relieved when Ethan voiced my question.

"Why're you sticking up for _her_?" he asked, casually hooking his thumb toward the potato that I had set on the ground a little ways off so we could have our mutants-only chat, "I always thought she scared you to death."

"That was before," Melody said uncomfortably, "And now I- well, I didn't think it was possible, but I _can_ pick up emotions from her…"

"Really? I didn't think she had emotions at all," Zack asked, sounding a little suspicious, "What's she feeling?"

"Well…" Melody said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger in a slightly embarrassed way, "She's, um, really angry…"

"I could've guessed that," Ethan commented.

"But she's also scared," she went on, "Like, _really_ scared. In fact, I think she's panicking right now."

I never considered that. I mean, it was only reasonable, but still. You know who we're talking about here.

"Hmmm…" Zack turned to me, "What do you think? Should we help our vegetable friend?"

The others turned to me too, and I felt a little pressured. I thought they would talk it out, and I would probably be fine with whatever they decided. Unless, of course, they made a bad decision, but… Okay, I agreed with Melody when she said that we came down here to find that potato, and we need that potato to not blow up, so if they decided to leave her here, I would've given them a piece of my mind.

But still, it was weird how everyone was looking at me expectantly, and I just knew GLaDOS was focused on me as well. It was like I was our pack's leader or something. I never really considered myself the leader, but now that I think about it…

Okay, enough of that. I gave them a brisk nod, and walked over to pick up PotaDOS.

"Alright, it's settled then," Ethan said, picking up the portal gun, "Sooo… Are we just going to take turns carrying her or what?"

I glanced at the potato in my hand, and then at the portal gun in Ethan's. Sure, we were saving her life, but a little extra revenge never hurts. I wordlessly took the gun from him and stabbed the potato onto one of the prongs coming off its operational end.

"OW! You STABBED me!" GLaDOS protested loudly, "What is WRONG with yo- WhoOOAAahhh. Hold on, do either of you have a multimeter?" We stared at her blankly. "Never mind. The gun must be part magnesium… It feels like I'm outputting an extra half a volt. Keep an eye on me: I'm going to do some scheming. Here I g-" Bzzt. Her voice was cut off and her optic went out.

We stared at the silent AI for a second in confusion.

"Umm…" Ethan began.

"Whoa! Where are we? How long have I been out?" GLaDOS asked in confusion, suddenly coming back.

"You were out for about…" Ethan paused, pretending to think, "I'd say ten seconds," he finished, snickering.

"Look, that half volt helps, but it's not going to power miracles," GLaDOS said exasperatedly, "If I think too hard, I'm going to fry this potato before we get a chance to burn up in the atomic fireball that little idiot is going to-" Bzzt.

We snickered again and headed to the elevator that led to the enrichment sphere that hovered over us.

"Did anything happen while I was out?" the potato questioned as we entered the old test chamber.

"The testing area's just up ahead," came Cave Johnson's voice, "The quicker you get through, the quicker you'll get your sixty bucks."

"Hold on, who-?" GLaDOS asked with confusion.

"Caroline, are the compensation vouchers ready?" Cave asked.

"Yes sir, Mister Johnson!" came Caroline's cheerful reply.

"'Yes sir, Mister Johnson'…" GLaDOS said at the same time, like she was in a trance, "Why did I just-? Who is that? What the H*** is going on he-?" Bzzt.

We stared at her in confusion, waiting for her to come back online. The only voices that I've ever mimicked were hers' and Caroline's, and when I mimicked Caroline she did say that her voice sounded familiar. I was getting suspicious that something had happened between GLaDOS and Caroline.

We quickly solved the test without GLaDOS coming back online. With the four of us, we could solve tests MUCH faster than I could alone, not to mention that we're genetically enhanced, so I guess it wasn't anything to worry about since it only took us a minute to finish the test.

On the way to the next test, she came back online.

"Okay, I guess emotional outbursts require more than 1.6 volts," GLaDOS said tiredly, "We just need to relax. We're still going to find out what the h***'s going on here, but calmly."

"First of all, we're not the one's who are running on just 1.6 volts," Ethan pointed out, "And secondly, what's going on here for us that isn't going on for _you_?"

"…I'm not sure," she answered uncertainly, "But something just seems off about that Caroline."

We made it through the last test chamber and, after listening to Cave Johnson telling us to not leave any old newspapers or sticks and to not spend all of our sixty dollars on beard dirt; we headed outside of the test chambers.

"Caroline… Caroline, Caroline, why do I know this woman?" GLaDOS pondered as we entered what appeared to be a pump station for the gels, "Did I kill her? Or… Oh my god… Look, you're… doing a great job," she said like it was awkward to compliment us, "Can you handle things for yourself for a while? I need to think."

"Sure," Zack retorted, "It's not like you've ever really helped us in the first place."

After turning on the pump station, and covering the place with gels, including a white gel we've never encountered before that made non-portal surfaces become portal surfaces, we continued through the room to the outside, where we found an old feathered friend.

"AGH! BIRD! BIRD! KILL IT! It's _evil_!" GLaDOS yelled as a crow squawked loudly and flew away, "It flew off. Good, for him. Alright, back to thinking."

We found ourselves in what appeared to be an office area where we heard Cave speak again.

"Welcome to the Enrichment Centre-" he was interrupted by a couple of fierce coughs, "Welcome to the Enrichment Center. Since making test participation mandatory for all employees, the quality of our test subjects has risen dramatically. Employee retention however, has not." He coughed again. "As a result, you may have heard we're going to faze out human testing. There's still a few things left to wrap up, though. The bean counters told me we literally could not afford to buy seven dollars worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground 'em up, mixed 'em into a gel. And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill." Well… I guess that explained the coughing. "Still, it turns out they're a great portal conductor. So now we're gonna see if jumping in and out of these new portals can somehow leech the lunar poison out of a man's bloodstream. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." He coughed again. "Let's all stay positive and do some science! That said, I would really appreciate it if you could test as fast as possible. Caroline, please bring me more pain pills."

We proceeded through the next test chamber, which involved this lunar poison of a gel. We didn't bother with the test, since we were able to just fly or jump up to the exit, and especially since we didn't want to end up like Cave Johnson.

"All right, I've been thinking," Cave began as we left the chamber, "When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade."

"Yeah," GLaDOS cut in.

"Make life take the lemons back!" he continued.

"Yeah!" she agreed.

"Get mad!"

"Yeah!"

"I don't want your d*** lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?"

"Yeah, take the lemons!"

"Demand to see life's manager!"

"Yeah!"

"Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons!" Cave was practically yelling at this point.

"Oh, I like this guy!" GLaDOS commented unsurprisingly.

"I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!"

"BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN!" GLaDOS yelled in agreement, "Burning people! He says what we're all thinking!"

We just stood there in shock as we listened to the odd exchange and started moving again as we heard Cave continue on in a calmer tone.

"The point is: If we can store music on a compact disk, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? So I have the engineers figuring that out now."

We exchanged glances as we had a sinking feeling on where Cave was going.

"Brain mapping. Artificial intelligence. We should have been working on it thirty years ago," Cave went on, "I will say this-and I'll say it on tape so everybody hears it one hundred times a day: If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place."

I froze, realization suddenly dawning on me. I could see that the rest of the pack felt the same.

"Now she'll argue," he continued after coughing, "She'll say she can't. She's modest like that, but you make her. H***, put her in my computer. I don't care. Alright, test's over. You can head on back to your desk."

"Goodbye, sir," GLaDOS said calmly.

So, we know this much: Cave Johnson died, and Caroline was put, maybe forced, into a computer that was probably GLaDOS. That explains what happened earlier.

"I know things look bleak," GLaDOS began after we moved on to a different area, "But that crazy man down there was right. Let's not take these lemons! We are going to march right back upstairs and MAKE him put me back in my body!"

"Yeah!" Ethan said in a joking imitation of GLaDOS and pumping his fist in the air. Humored, I decided to show him how it's done.

"Yeah!" I imitated in a way that was a lot more girlish and enthusiastic than the way she actually said it.

"Ha, ha," GLaDOS sighed, "And he'll probably kill us, because he's incredibly powerful and I-we-have no plan!" she continued.

"Nice attempt at a pep talk," Zack grumbled, fluttering his wings as he examined our surroundings.

"Look, I'm being honest," she said, "The odds are a million to one and that's with some generous rounding."

"Don't worry," Melody said in a hypnotically soothing voice, "We'll make it through."

"Yeah…" GLaDOS replied in an abnormally calm and slow tone, "I'm sure we'll think of something…" She sounded like she was about to fall asleep, and her optic dimmed.

"What did you just do?" I asked, trying to imitate that soothing voice to show what I mean, but it just didn't sound right.

Melody shrugged. "I wanted her to calm down, so I guess I just… made her calm down."

We were a little creeped out by this, but knowing Melody, we wouldn't have to worry about it. Man, it seemed like we were getting new powers all the time.

We moved through one last test chamber and traveled up a large, steep shaft into what appeared to be another pump room, where we finally found something that could help us in its control room.

"Wait! I've got an idea!" GLaDOS said just before we could press a button labeled 'Hatch Override', "That poster! Let me look at it for a second, would you?"

I shrugged and held the portal gun in front of a poster that read: "Know your paradoxes! In the event of a rogue AI- Stand still, Remain calm, Scream: "This sentence is false!" "New mission: Refuse this mission!" "Does a set of all sets contain itself?"

"Paradoxes… No AI can resist thinking about them," GLaDOS explained, "I know how we can beat him!"

"Care to explain?" Ethan asked casually as he hit the button.

"If we get in front of him, we can yell out paradoxes and fry every circuit in that little idiot's head!" she explained excitedly as a huge vault door on the ceiling slowly opened, "As long as I don't listen to what we're saying, I should be okay."

We watched as a lift was lowered through the door's entrance and jumped down to the floor. Zack and I circled while Ethan and Melody rode the lift up. I could already tell from the smell of chemical sterility that we had made it all the way up.

For trying to kill the pack, _my _pack, Wheatley was going to get it, whether it was from a paradox or from being ripped apart.

**A/N: I know that it takes FOREVER for a chapter to come up here, but DON'T EVER THINK THIS FIC IS ABANDONED! I try to make sure a fic is watertight before I start to write it so that I never abandon a fic and potentially leave many people disappointed. Not that many people read this fic, but still.**

**At least this is almost over. For whom it may concern: If you're one of the very few waiting on the sequel to The Red Sphere, it will come along after this one is finished. And after I finally decide exactly what I want to happen in it.**


	11. The New Surprise

**A/N: Well, I've finally gotten around to updating this. I told you that you should never give up on this. It's surprising how hard it is to getting around to writing this, especially since this will probably be the second to last chapter. Too… Much… School…**

We walked along a catwalk in single file, with me in the lead. As we went along, we heard Wheatley rant, "For god's sake, you're boxes! With legs! It's literally your only purpose, walking onto but- how can you not do the one thing you're designed for?"

Curiously, we turned a corner into a small room with an observation window overlooking a chamber with a single button in the middle and a TV monitor on the wall with Wheatley's face on it. Dragging themselves along the floor were some kind of monster mash-up of… Turrets and cubes.

Really, they were almost funny. Protruding from one face of the cube were two turret heads and two legs that were used to drag the thing around. As much as I resisted laughing, I also couldn't help but take pity on them, too. I mean, I have _wings_. Who am I to talk?

Ethan whistled. "Looks like he's made some more mutants," he observed calmly.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" GLaDOS asked suspiciously.

"He cracked into your supply of test subjects," Zack explained darkly, "and made more mutants like us. However, they're a bit…"

"Unstable?" Melody suggested. Zack nodded gravely.

"Why am I not surprised…" the AI muttered, "Just try to get us down there. Then we can hit him with a paradox."

"Warmer, warrrrmer," Wheatley coached his creations, which I began to mentally call Frankenturrets, "Boiling hot, boiling-colder, ice cold, your artic now, very, very, cold. Look, just GET ON THE BUTTON!"

I examined the small room filled with the turret-things, remembering the time when Wheatley tried to kill us with his part human part-who-knows-what creations. I had a bad feeling about that room, but that wasn't anything new.

We portaled to a catwalk below the room and walked onto a lift that took us to a higher catwalk. We followed it to a short hallway that had a door on both ends.

"Oh, that's funny, is it?" Wheatley said irritably, "Because we've been at this for twelve hours, and you haven't solved it either, so I don't know why _you're_ laughing! You've got one hour! Solve it!"

Only one of the doors in the hallway would open, and it led into the room filled with Frankenturrets. We walked in, and the TV monitor that Wheatley was watching from was dark.

"Solve this puzzle for him. When he comes back, we'll attack," GLaDOS said with a hint of excitement.

I doubted that it would stay there if we tried to put one of those things on a button. Up close, the turret-cubes were much creepier. They kept muttering in a whispery robotic voice that I couldn't understand, and those that hadn't fallen over were only trying to drag themselves forward, like they couldn't change direction even if they were headed for a wall, another cube, or a cliff, if there was one.

Melody chased one down and picked it up. Surprisingly, it reacted by pulling its heads and legs into the cube, like a hermit crab going into its shell, and stayed that way when it was placed on the button.

"Ha, ha! Yes! I knew you could do it!" Wheatley said triumphantly before he realized who was in the room.

"Hey! Moron!" GLaDOS called.

"Oh… 'Ello…" he replied with a hint of uncertainty.

"Alright, paradox time," she muttered.

All at once, everyone except GLaDOS and I began to yell out whatever paradox they knew, and even some things that I was pretty sure were just riddles. GLaDOS muttered "Don't think about it, don't think about it," to herself a few times before reciting something that had to do with the Universal Law of Gravitation, probably to distract herself, while I kept quiet due to my still-burning throat. Hey, no matter whose voice I was mimicking, talking _hurt_.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Wheatley called over the clamor, "I can't understand a _word_ any of you are saying! One at a time, please!"

They shut up, glancing at one another, waiting to see who wanted to take the first shot.

"Okay, then, uh," Wheatley said, looking at each of us, "You, Bat Boy, you go first."

"_Bat Boy_?" Zack hissed, flashing his leathery wings, "It's Bat_man_ to you!"

"For the love of science…" GLaDOS muttered.

"Same difference!" Wheatley said exasperatedly, "What were you trying to say? Oh, never mind. What about you, the part-leopard guy?"

"I'm part _cheetah_!" Ethan growled.

"Just say a paradox already!" GLaDOS ordered.

"_This sentence is false_!" Melody yelled in the loudest voice any of us heard her use. Sparks flew and smoke rose from the Frankenturrets as they malfunctioned.

"Umm, true, I'll go true," Wheatley replied, unaffected, "Huh, that was easy."

"It's a paradox! There is no answer!" GLaDOS protested, "Look! This place is going to explode if I don't get back in my body!"

"Uh, false, I'll go false," Wheatley replied apathetically.

"Explosion imminent," came the announcer, "Evacuate the facility immediately."

"Hold on, I thought I fixed that…" Wheatley disappeared from the monitor for a second, "There. Fixed. I'll be honest, I'm really glad that you guys came back!"

The room started to rumble, and the sound of metal scraping against metal ripped through the room as it lurched forward.

"I've spent soooo much time these last few hours creating another surprise for you guys!" Wheatley explained excitedly as the room began to pick up speed and vibrate more.

"Oh, goodie," Ethan said sarcastically.

The room lurched to a stop, and the walls and ceiling fell away, revealing that we were now in a huge room. The floor that we were standing on was suspended above a seemingly bottomless pit, and at the front of the room was a group of monitors that created one large image of Wheatley. Along the walls were cages that probably contained more of Wheatley's monsters, judging from the constant growling. Behind us, panels slid back into place, cutting off the pathway that we came through

"So, while you were gone, I was watching some of my freaky friends jump around," Wheatley said as if we were discussing the weather, "And I thought to myself, 'Yeah, they're deadly, but what's missing?' and then I realized that I needed more wings. And, voila! Here's your new surprise! Also, don't try escaping, please. I know some of you can fly, but there's nothing down in that pit there, and no other way out."

Naturally, by the time he finished his speech, we saw a way out. Behind the monitors was a portal surface by a catwalk that led to a hallway. Zack and I could fly there easily, but the floor below us wasn't portal friendly and neither Ethan nor Melody would be able to make that jump, at least without more room for a running start.

"Alright, let's see if you can stop my killing force now!" Wheatley said as the cage doors swung open, and our new adversaries fluttered out.

"Oh my god, he's worse than I thought," GLaDOS said, "All those wasted test subjects…"

They were just as grotesque as before, but with lopsided wings sewed onto their shoulders. Some had crooked or bent wings; others had one wing that was way too large while the other was way too small, and others had wings that were obviously not from the same species. I was surprised that any of them could fly at all, but they came at us, fluttering unsteadily.

"You two hold your ground here while Chell and I cover you aerially," Zack ordered, "Then we can worry about escaping."

_Spoken like a true leader,_ I thought, taking off as the winged beasts swooped out of their cages. For a while we just circled and dodged, trying to figure out how to best handle these things. Remembering our last battle, I doubted those wings were attached as well as ours.

I circled and positioned myself behind and above one who was too preoccupied with following Zack to notice. I tucked my wings in, letting myself drop and kick its back with both feet before regaining flight. Its spine was already hunched from trying to support its oversized wings, and it snapped from the force. The beast let out a screech and plummeted. Zack might've heard what happened, since he feet-bombed another one in the chest, knocking the breath out of it and apparently making it forget how to flap.

I cruised for a moment, watching it fall into the abyss and wondered whether it would be able to regain flight and come back.

"BEHIND YOU!" GLaDOS suddenly yelled.

Too late. Something slammed into my back, and I felt a large beak sink into my right shoulder. I tried to maintain flight, but whatever was attacking me had stopped flapping, and its one oversized wing was making me unbalanced. Unable to stay aloft, I allowed myself to plummet, hoping that there would be enough space to shake it off and come back.

The monster on my back proceeded to rip at my shoulder, oblivious to the fact that we were both falling to our death. I spread my wings again, slowing our fall, and thrust us into a spin. Maybe it would get too dizzy to hold on?

It wasn't working. It held on, not to mention that apparently spinning and falling while your lifeline was being attacked wasn't a certain potato's cup of tea. However, yelling at me never helps.

Finally, I stopped the spin and thrust us to one side, slamming the monster into a wall. After a few seconds the beak was finally ripped out of my shoulder, and I steadied my flight while the thing plummeted. But now that I'm down here, I have to fly back up. However, pain was searing through my shoulder and down my back, making the base of my right wing feel numb and not want to cooperate.

"Look, you have to fly," the potato urged while we continued to fall, slowly and probably not at a lethal rate, but still falling, "If we keep falling, we'll end up right back in Lower Aperture. We don't have much time until this place explodes."

I tried to flap my wings, but that monster might as well still be clinging to me.

"You managed to keep going long enough to kill me, even when you were locked in a room that was filling up with neurotoxin," GLaDOS went on, a hint of desperation in her voice, "Surely something as small as _this_ won't stop you."

She might as well be right. Forcing my wings to work, I began to steadily climb back up.

When I finally reached the top, the rest of the pack was gathered on the platform in the middle of the room. The monsters were gone, and Wheatley was urging them to just stay where they were so that he could find another way to kill them. I felt a pang of guilt; they all had fought off at least ten mutants while I was almost killed by one.

"Oh, for god's-You're back? I thought I only had to deal with three of you now! Why couldn't you have just stayed down there?" Wheatley said frustratedly as I landed unsteadily on the platform, to the relief of everyone else.

"Are you alright?" Melody asked, gently taking the portal gun with the potato out of my hands.

_Of course not,_ I thought, even though I stubbornly nodded. I examined everyone else. Oddly enough, none of them looked hurt, except for Zack, who had a small cut on his wrist. Oh, so I'm also the only one who got hurt at all?

"This is bad, really bad," GLaDOS said gravely. The right side of my shirt was almost completely stained red, and I unsteadily lowered myself to a sitting position on the floor as the platform seemed to spin.

"Oh, Zack, why don't you show her your new ability?" Ethan asked in a carefree tone.

"This isn't the time to be showing off your mutations," the potato growled, "We need her and she's about to bleed to death!"

"That's why we need him to-" Ethan began.

"Already on it," Zack said as he knelt beside me. He brought his cut wrist up to his mouth and slashed it with vampire-like fangs, then held it over my shoulder while squeezing the blood onto my cut. There was a burning sensation, and the spinning platform gradually slowed. "C'mon…" he muttered, slashing his wrist again. I wasn't sure what was making me sicker, my wound or what Zack was doing.

"Better?" Zack asked after the spinning and the burning finally stopped. I looked at my shoulder and, to my surprise; it looked like it had a week of healing. The bleeding had stopped and it had mostly knit back together. It was still sore, but I could manage.

"No! NO! Didn't mean to do that!" Wheatley's voice suddenly rang out as a pipe in the room broke and began dripping Conversion Gel onto a platform. With one portal on that platform and another on the wall near the catwalk, gel spilled onto the floor we were standing on, allowing us to portal over to the catwalk.

"Where'd you go? Come back! Come back!" Wheatley called out desperately.

"Can you manage?" Zack asked as we ran down the catwalk. I nodded, forgetting that he was blind.

"She's nodding," Ethan said calmly.

"Good," Zack went on, "'Cause we've got a moron to catch!"


	12. To The Moon!

**A/N: Yay, it's Christmas break, we get 2 weeks off! Fanfiction writing should go up, right? Wrong. My English teacher gave us a big homework assignment so I'll procrastinate with writing stories just as much. **

We ran full-pelt along some catwalks, with me in the lead and Wheatley trying to get us to come back, just like any other escape. Once, we had to fly/portal over to another catwalk, and turned a corner. On the left side, the catwalk ran right up against a portal-friendly wall, and to the right there was more room with a metal wall. A Frankenturret was hobbling along it towards us. I ran straight toward it, preparing to jump over it and keep going.

"Wait!" I heard Zack yell. He grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Seconds later, a mashy-spike-plate broke through the metal wall and slammed into the opposite wall, by some miracle not killing the Frankenturret. It passed by so close to me that it brushed the tips of my wings as I was pulled back.

"YES! YES! IN YOUR FACE!" Wheatley yelled as the plate pulled back again, "I GOT YO- ah, nope… Fine. Let the games… begin."

I fell backward onto the metal catwalk, a little freaked out. If Zack didn't hear that coming and pulled me back, I would be a bloody mess on the wall. I stood up and faced the others. Ethan was helping Melody up; he must have pulled her back like Zack did for me. The gash on my shoulder was throbbing and bleeding a little, since being yanked back had opened it up a bit. Zack's magic blood could only go so far in healing, I guess, since it had only healed it enough to stop the bleeding and temporarily stop the pain.

"While we're taking a break, I need to talk the four of you," GLaDOS spoke up.

"What now, PotaDOS?" Ethan asked casually.

"Don't call me that," she snapped, "Look, as you probably know, we don't have much time before that little idiot blows this entire place up. We need to get to him as fast as we can-"

"And you've got four genetically-enhanced mutants at your service," Ethan said sarcastically, flexing his muscles and making the rest of us roll our eyes at him.

"The point is, the results from you previous tests show that you can navigate faster individually when you don't have to wait on others," she explained.

"Oh, so you're talking about your two winged ones here," he replied, gesturing to Zack and I, "They can zip all over the place while Melody and I have to use the portal gun."

"That's not what I mean. Well, not exactly…"

"Exactly!" he protested, "So, you want them to fly you to your mainframe while the rest of us sit here and hope we don't die?"

"No," GLaDOS replied, keeping her tone steady even though I could tell she was getting frustrated with him, "I'll need all four of you. I'm just saying that she can get me there faster and we can think up a plan of attack while we wait for you."

"She? So now you're only taking Chell?"

"I can fly just as fast as she can," Zack spoke up.

"She can fly a full 35 miles per hour faster, not to mention the hyper-drive she demonstrated the last time we were in my chamber," she replied, "And she can see," she added, just because she knew that would get to him. I shot her a warning look.

"She can see but she most certainly can't hear," he replied darkly, "You saw what happened with the spike plate. If me and Ethan didn't hear it, you'd both be in that hole." He jerked his thumb in the general direction of the hole in the wall.

"He's right," I hated to admit, mimicking Caroline's voice, "He comes with us, Ethan and Melody stay together with the gun. That way, both groups have an eyes and an ears." Man, talking _hurt._ I preferred staying silent.

A synthesized sigh came from whatever speaker was on that potato. "Fine."

I carefully pulled her off the gun, and handed it to Ethan. "Enjoy your quality time with the potato," he joked, "And keep your ears open, Bat_man_," he teased Zack, who nodded quietly.

I spread my wings and flew over the gap in the catwalk created by the spike plate with Zack just behind me. We flew through the door at the end of the catwalk and entered a more open area with two test chambers on massive rails on either side of the catwalk. In between them, on the other side of the room, was the door.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on, I'm almost there…" we heard Wheatley say. We landed on the catwalk and walked along with more caution as the chamber on the right began to slide forward, smashing the catwalk in front of us and crashing into the other test chamber. "Don't mind me, just continue escaping."

A bit of the bottom fell off, revealing a convenient portal surface on the chamber's ceiling with a grate still covering the floor. Under normal circumstances, as in if we were still just humans, we would have to portal into the chamber and have no way out. But this is us we're talking about.

"Yes, it's a trap, but luckily you can fly past it," GLaDOS noted, "This is why I wanted to split up."

We flew underneath the chamber, but landed under the grated opening.

"Maybe we should clear it out for the others," Zack suggested calmly, "Do you mind using your 'hyper-drive' on that grate?"

I nodded, grinning mischievously.

"Don't. It'll only cost us time," GLaDOS protested, "Do you _want_ to blow this entire place up? On second thought, don't answer that."

I tossed the potato to Zack, who somehow caught it, and readied myself under the grate. The heat rose in my wings, filling me with unexplainable energy. I wonder what flaw in my DNA allows me to do this.

Soon the heat became unbearable, and a shot upward. A second later, I was inside the test chamber with several Vital Apparatus Vents and a headache from bashing through the grate and bumping into the ceiling.

"HA! Death trap!" Wheatley said triumphantly as defective turrets fell through the vents and greeted me with friendly, "We're back!" "Hi there!" "Well, hello stranger!"

I face palmed and glided back down to Zack.

"Not much?" he asked. Throat still sore, I only shook my head, and GLaDOS passed this on to him.

We walked on through the door, since the hyper-drive left my wings burning and exhausted, with Wheatley complaining behind us.

We continued on, dodging Wheatley's attempted traps and flying on. Eventually, Wheatley got desperate enough to off to allow us to kill ourselves before we reach his 'lair', which we _politely_ said no to.

Proceeding past the masher he tired to get us to sacrifice ourselves in, we walked through a hallway when suddenly the wall of the room ahead of us collapsed away, revealing the now crumbling bowels of Aperture stretching ahead of us. Looking closer, I could see the cylindrical structure that was the Central AI Chamber.

"Oh my god," GLaDOS said softly as we watched her facility literally fall apart at the seams right in front of us, "What has he _done_ to this place?"

We walked up to the hole, spread our wings, and took off into the open space toward our enemy.

"You know, I'm not stupid," GLaDOS said as I flew a ways ahead of Zack, "I know that neither of you really want to put me back in charge. You think that I'll betray you. And on any other day you'd be right," she paused for a moment, "The scientists were always hanging cores on me to regulate my behavior. I've heard voices all my life. But now I hear the voice of a conscience and it's _terrifying_, because for the first time it's _my _voice!"

I slowed my flight into a gentle glide, giving her a searching look.

"I'm being serious. I think there's something really wrong with me," she said worriedly.

I mouthed 'Wrong?' and mimicked her dark chuckle from before the potato business.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she challenged in her old, cold way, "I'm finally being straight with you. You could at least repay me by talking with your mimicry skills that I gave you."

I just smiled, glad that the tension was broken with her going back to the way she was.

Zack caught up with us as we flew through a door into a small room with the only way forward being straight up, which was blocked by a grate.

"Think you can bash through another grate?" Zack asked, clicking his echolocation upward. I nodded, not looking forward to another headache as I handed the potato to him.

One broken grate later, we proceeded to a hallway that passed by two bins filled with personality cores. Most were offline, but three were still activated.

"Corrupted cores! We're in luck," GLaDOS said, "You find a way to stun him, I'll send you a core, and then you attach it to him. If we do it a few times, he might become corrupt enough for another core transfer."

"Great, so we have a plan," Zack said, leaning against the bin, "Now we wait for the others."

"We don't have time to wait!" she yelled, "This place could blow up any minute! They'll step in and help us when they can!"

Zack was about to protest when a particularly violent tremor nearly knocked us off our feet. Reluctantly, we moved forward along the catwalk to the same breaker room that Wheatley was plugged into when we reactivated GLaDOS.

"Plug me in and I'll take you up," she instructed once we were inside.

I wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that, considering that she was a potato, so I just jammed her into it and hoped for the best.

"Look, even if you think we're still enemies, we're enemies with a common interest," GLaDOS said as she started to spin on the receptacle and the platform began to rise, "Revenge. You like revenge, right? Everybody likes revenge! Well, let's go get some!"

The platform halted and we stepped into Wheatley's 'lair'.

"Well, well, well! Welcome to MY LAIR!" Wheatley exclaimed, trying to intimidate us with a deep voice, "Lemme just flag something up. According to that control panel, the entire building is going to self-destruct in about six minutes. I'm pretty sure it's a problem with the lights. I think the light's on the blink, but just in case it isn't, I actually am going to have to kill you as discussed earlier."

He rambled on for a bit while Zack and I examined the area, looking for any means of attack.

"…Four part plan is this," Wheatley rambled on, "One: No portal surfaces. Two: Start the neurotoxin immediately. Three: Bombproof shields for me, which leads onto number four: Bombs. For throwing at you. Oh, yes, that and my little friends that I introduced you to a while back."

Panels slid away, revealing open cages that Wheatley's monsters, with the same foaming mouths and bloodshot eyes, loped out of.

As they charged forward, I dodged behind a pipe of Conversion Gel. Wheatley's bombs struck it, breaking it and splattering the battlefield with the white gel. Great, now all we need is a portal gun and our friends. We could use the bombs to stun him.

But since we were short on time and we didn't have a gun, I knew that we were going to have to get creative for now. I was already feeling heated energy rise up inside me as I circled the chamber. I picked up speed until the feverish heat reached its climax. Finding an opening in his shields, I hyper-drove straight at him.

"GAH!" Wheatley shrieked as I collided with the mainframe.

I didn't blame him, since I was reeling as well. I fluttered to the floor, the wound on my shoulder reopened.

Smelling the blood, the creatures knew I was a much easier target than Zack. One pounced on my back, groping for my neck. I dizzily tried to fight it off, weakly fluttering my burning wings. Just before my throat was ripped away, the weight of the monster was thrown off.

"Need help?" I heard Melody ask gently. I looked up and took her offered hand, letting myself get pulled to my feet.

At the same time, Wheatley stirred.

"Ahh… Wha- What happened? What've you put onto me? What's that?"

I looked up at him and saw that I must have been able to stun him just as much as I stunned myself, since a core was plugged into the mainframe and the neurotoxin was offline, but we only had four minutes before the facility exploded.

I looked around the chamber. Zack was locked in a dogfight with a winged creature just above us, and Ethan, who had the portal gun, was using it to send monsters flying around, which was an effective way not only to hurt them, but if one were to fall on top of another, they'd fight each other. However, we needed the portals to redirect the bombs. I couldn't just keep smashing into the mainframe.

I flew over to him and snatched the gun.

"Hey! I was using that!" he protested.

Ignoring him, I aimed a portal underneath the mainframe, where Wheatley was unprotected. I then hopped clearly into his view, challenging him to fire at me. He did so, and I dodged aside, shooting a portal under his bombs and sending them up at him.

He was stunned again, and I saw a core drop down by the catwalk. Zack, after finishing off his adversary, flew over and grabbed it, slamming it into the mainframe.

"Gah! I told you to stop putting these cores on me, but you don't listen, do you? None of you freaks listen!" Wheatley protested.

I flew back into his line of sight, watching his shields to figure out where to aim the portals, when a large, sharp beak drove itself into my wing. The gun was knocked out of my hands as my attacker flapped its large, black, lopsided wings in an attempt to stay aloft. However, it ended up driving us both into the ground.

I kicked and thrashed in an attempt to get it off me as it pinned me to the ground, wishing that I had fangs or claws like Ethan and Melody. However, whatever was on top of me was big, bulky, and had one heck of a beak. Finally Zack pulled it off and finished it with a dive-bomb kick to the spine before flying off to attack something else.

Meanwhile, Ethan and Melody were working together to bring down a monster with an elephant's trunk, while Zack was dive-bombing what looked eerily similar to a werewolf stuck in the middle of transformation. The last three monsters were fighting each other in a writhing pile. The portal gun was on the ground where it had been knocked away from me.

"And you know what else?" Wheatley rambled on. This entire time, he'd been ranting on about how we were such horrible little mutated freaks. "All you guys had to do was solve a couple hundred simple tests, but you just couldn't do that, could you? You wouldn't even let me keep my own mutant test subjects! Look at 'em, they're all either dead or dying!"

I got his attention and shot the portals, redirecting his bombs at him for one last time, stunning him.

"Here's another core. This one should do it!" I heard GLaDOS say. I spotted the pink-eyed sphere hanging nearby.

I flew to it, my hurt wing protesting each flap. Ignoring it, I grabbed it and plugged it into the mainframe.

"Core corruption at 100%," the announcer announced.

"Gaaahhh…" Wheatley groaned as he came back online.

"Manuel core replacement required," the announcer went on.

"Oh. I see," Wheatley said, chuckling.

"Substitute Core, are you ready to start?"

"Yes! Come on!" GLaDOS yelled immediately.

"Corrupted Core, are you ready to start?"

"What do you think?" he replied exasperatedly.

"Interpreting vague answer as 'yes'."

"NONONONONONONO! You didn't pick up on my sarcasm!" he protested.

"Stalemate detected. Fire detected in the Stalemate Resolution Annex. Extinguishing."

Sprinklers on the ceiling turned on, washing away most of the gel except a patch below the mainframe. A panel slid away as the fire behind it was extinguished, revealing a small room with a button.

Ethan, Melody, and Zack had finished off their opponents and were watching me while the remaining two monsters were still preoccupied with eating the third.

"Stalemate Resolution Associate: Please press the Stalemate Resolution Button."

"Go press the button! Go press it!" GLaDOS ordered.

"Do not press that button!" Wheatley countered.

"We're so close! Go press the button!"

"No! Do not do it! I forbid you to press it!"

"Press it! Press the button!"

Feeling a sense of déjà vu, I shot a portal on the remaining patch of Conversion Gel and the other on a portal surface above the button. I spotted the bombs just before they exploded, throwing me backwards through the grate.

"PART FIVE! BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!" Wheatley yelled triumphantly.

I landed on my already hurt wing and felt the bones snap.

"Wha-? Are you still alive?" Wheatley yelled angrily, "You've got to be joking! You've got to be kidding me!" I reached for the portal gun as he went on, "Well, I'm still in control, and I have NO IDEA HOW TO FIX THIS PLACE!"

As usual, he continued to rant while I grabbed the gun. My companions tried to run to me, but I gestured for them to keep back as part of the ceiling fell away and the full moon shown down. The idea I had in mind was ridiculous, but it was the only plan I had. I aimed carefully and pulled the trigger.

For a second, nothing happened. Then there was a small twinkle on the moon, and then I felt the air start to rush out of the room with incredible force, sucking me toward the portal underneath Wheatley. I grappled for a handhold, but the only one I found happened to be the handles on Wheatley's core as we were both sucked into space. The monsters weren't so lucky, since all of them were sucked out without finding something to grab onto.

"SPACE!" Wheatley yelled. Luckily he was still connected to the mainframe, so neither of us was shot into orbit around the moon. "Let go! We're in space!" Wheatley screamed.

"Space? Space!" said one of the corrupted cores as it bumped into Wheatley and flew out into space, "SPAAAAAACE!"

"Let go! Let go! I'm still connected! I can pull myself in! I can still fix this!" Wheatley almost begged. Yeah, like I would let go and let myself get sucked into space.

"I already fixed it," I heard GLaDOS say from inside the portal, "And you are NOT coming back!"

We were slowly pulled toward the portal while a mechanical arm reached out, aiming to slap Wheatley out of my hands.

_No no no,_ I thought frantically, _She's going to let me die in space, isn't she?_

"Change of plans! Hold onto me! Tighter!" Wheatley said desperately as I was doing just that.

However, when the mechanical arm hit, not even a genetically enhanced test subject could keep her grip on the core as he was knocked away yelling "GRAB ME GRAB ME GRAB MEEEEEE!" After a second, I realized I wasn't flying off with him, and looking back toward the portal, I saw that the arm had a firm grip on my wrist and was pulling me back inside.

The portal closed, and I collapsed on the floor. The arm turned and grabbed a large core with a dark yellow optic nearby and dragged it passed me as I passed out.


End file.
